Some law enforcement officials are frustrated that Apple and other tech companies appear to be winning the PR battle over data privacy, reports the NYT.
Some Justice and F.B.I. officials have been frustrated that the White House has not moved more quickly or been more outspoken in the public relations fight that the tech companies appear to be winning, the law enforcement officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private conversations.
The comments came in the wake of a DOJ drugs and guns investigation where the agency obtained a court order to obtain iMessages between suspects, and Apple responded that it was unable to comply as end-to-end encryption is used, meaning that Apple has no way to decrypt the communications. Tim Cook said of iMessages a year ago that the content is “encrypted and we don’t have the key.”
There has long been tension between Apple and law enforcement agencies over encryption, Apple arguing that its customers right to privacy outweighs the right of law enforcement agencies to intercept communications – a stance strengthened by the Snowden revelations into large-scale electronic surveillance by governments. Law enforcement officials have become increasingly strident and hyperbolic in their statements on the subject.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder said last year that less stringent protection would still “adequately protect personal privacy,” FBI Director James Comey claimed that Apple’s encryption was “putting people beyond the law,” the DOJ suggested that iPhone encryption could eventually lead to the death of a child” and Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr, said that the iPhone would be “the terrorists’ communication device of choice.”
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So basically the people of a democracy get what they want ? How … unfortunate … :)
Exactly what I was thinking when I saw the title. Unfortunately there are a great deal of bleeding hearts that think the government should have control under the umbrella of safety and security.
I tend to think the fascist conservatives want this more
I’m a bleeding heart but give me liberty! We don’t have to choose between security and privacy.
Typical terrorism/trafficking/child porn argument just cause they want to see who’s pirating The Fantastic 4.
No one. No one is pirating The Fantastic 4 movie.
Only time will tell. If the terrorist threat in America is as real as the government says then we will see the evidence in the streets. I don’t mean deaths caused by individualist sympathizers either. We will always have those type of deaths no matter the motivation. The turning point, if it happens again, will be the 9-1-1 type of incidents. Only then will the majority stand and say we are willing to accept less privacy – do what’s necessary to protect us. Presently, the majority is ambivalent on the subject of privacy as it pertains to terrorism. The government has not made its case. Only the terrorists can make the government case for it.
Encryption bad. Guns good. This has been funny for so long. Until the whackos at the DOJ and FBI get their way and it’s not. The Whitehouse needs to act swiftly and decisively to support and give their full backing to Apple and other tech companies on this subject.
Errr.. Not sure I follow you, the same people who argue in favor of unfettered government snooping, are the same who want to remove guns from the general populace. Conversely those who have a hard stance on privacy typically (but not universally) also have a hard stance on personal gun rights.
If the Government wins this one then their Commissars will eventually control everything. They wil not only tell you who to hire, what you can, who you are allowed to marry.where to relieve yourself and how often. That will be the Workers paradise where the only billionaires will be politicians and everybody else will earn the same income no matter what they do or even if they work.
Let those FBI, NSA and other 3letter smart asses companies invent/develop their own encryption codes. Why do they want others to do the work for them?
What these idiots don’t get is that they can backdoor all the devices they want, terrorists would just use something else to create their own custom implementation. The only people that will be harmed are the legal-abiding citizens, therefore, it is not justified to have a backdoor in all comms system. Period.
Related to this topic, are two must see PBS Frontline documentaries: “United States of Secrets” -> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/ and “American Terrorist” -> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/american-terrorist/ They are also available via Apple TV or youTube.
You won’t believe what your government has been up to, with regard to mass survalence of the entire american public. Or the extent to which both the Bush and Obama administrations went to, to keep the public in the dark, about the fact that the NSA was spying on all americans. And how both Bush and Obama lied about that fact, when asked about the extent of the surveillance program, when details of its existence started to leak.