Apple and Google are leading the charge in a new campaign to convince the U.S. President to deny FBI requests for backdoor access to Smartphone data, the Washington Post is reporting.
In a letter obtained by the Post, technology companies, including Apple and Google as well as Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter, are asking President Barack Obama to “reject any proposal that U.S. companies deliberately weaken the security of their products.”
“We request that the White House instead focus on developing policies that will promote rather than undermine the wide adoption of strong encryption technology,” the letter reads. “Such policies will in turn help to promote and protect cyber-security, economic growth, and human rights, both here and abroad.”
The letter, which is to be sent today, addresses demands from FBI Director James B. Comey, who took Google and Apple to task after they announced last year they would be implementing default heavy encryption on iOS and Android.
Comey last fall said it was unwise to keep data out of the reach of police.
“What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,” Comey was quoted by the Wall Street Journal at the time.
But backdoors are not the answer to law enforcement’s needs, the letter insists. The problem with backdoors, according to the letter, is they can let in more than the FBI or other law enforcement agencies — they can also admit cyber-criminals and other malicious hackers.
The letter describes encryption as the best way to protect people, companies and organizations from “countless threats—be they street criminals trying to steal our phones and laptops, computer criminals trying to defraud us, corporate spies trying to obtain our companies’ most valuable trade secrets, repressive governments trying to stifle dissent, or foreign intelligence agencies trying to compromise our and our allies’ most sensitive national security secrets.”
Backdoors could also be a threat to national security and the nation’s economy, the letter points out.
“In addition to undermining cyber-security, any kind of vulnerability mandate would also seriously undermine our economic security,” the letter says. “U.S. companies are already struggling to maintain international trust in the wake of revelations about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Introducing mandatory vulnerabilities into American products would further push many customers—be they domestic or international, individual or institutional—to turn away from those compromised products and services.”
The hullabaloo began when Apple and Google announced plans last year for heavy encryption.
The privacy policy Apple implemented last fall makes it very difficult for any third party to access user data because Apple does not have users’ encryption keys.
“On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode,” a post on Apple’s website reads.
“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”
Google’s Android L operating system also encrypts data by default, providing Android users with an extra level of security.
“For over three years, Android has offered encryption, and keys are not stored off of the device, so they cannot be shared with law enforcement,” Google said in a statement in September. “As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won’t even have to think about turning it on.”
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Apple, Google Ask Obama to Say No to Backdoors
Jennifer Cowan is the Managing Editor for SiteProNews.
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