Calif. Bill Would Ban Smartphone Encryption

California, despite its deep roots in technology, recently had a bill introduced into legislation that requires any smartphone built “on or after January 1, 2017, and sold in California, to be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider”. If devices are found not to comply with these regulations, they could be fined $2,500 (presumably per device).

One week after the news about New York’s encryption bill comes the same word from California: The Golden State has proposed a bill that would ban the sale of encrypted smartphones manufactured on or after January 1, 2016.

If the bill becomes law, the bill would affect all iPhones with iOS 8 and above, as well as many Android devices (especially the ones that come installed with Android 6.0). Many smartphones are sold with full-disk encryption software that can be unlocked only with the user’s personal password or information. The iPhone maker added strong encryption to its devices a year ago, and Google followed suit shortly afterwards with similar encryption on Android. Since long time, an argument over smartphone encryption has been continuing between device manufacturers like Apple.

Last week, in a meeting with White House officials, Apple CEO Tim Cook urged the Obama administration to issue a strong public statement defending unbreakable encryption and to adopt a “no backdoors” policy. Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, would require companies such as Apple and Google to sell smartphones that could be unlocked to help law enforcement agencies in human trafficking investigations.

The bills have yet to be voted on by the state assemblies and senates, but are unlikely to get any support from the federal government. Apple has already publicly criticized the U.K.’s not-dissimilar draft Investigatory Powers Bill, a.k.a. the “snooper’s charter”, arguing that forcing companies to create backdoors in encryption services like iMessage could “hurt law-abiding citizens”. It should be noted that that’s the same fine amount as listed in the NY bill.

We’ll keep you updated on the bill’s progress.