White House backs away from demanding access to encrypted data

“When the government presses for more access, tech firms counter and build in more and stronger encryption controls. The important thing is to make sure companies get a place technologically, legally where we could get you to comply with court orders”. The companies have to understand that “malicious actors” will communicate with encrypted devices.

The decision to back away from a law that would have companies turn over encrypted information to the federal government came from fears that the information would then be vulnerable to hackers, The New York Times reported Saturday. It was introduced in 1993 and was considered defunct by 1996 amid criticism from consumers and manufacturers.

Google has been offering an encryption option on its Android phones for years, and last year it said that all new Android phones would be encrypted by default.

Plus, White House officials said they would continue pressuring technology companies to help them in investigations, though they did not specify how.

However American intelligence services can nonetheless legally acquire data like text messages, e-mails, images, and calling records via court orders, notes Bloomberg News, regardless of heavy encryption.

The central tension in the debate is that Silicon Valley uses encryption mostly to protect their corporate intellectual property – not necessarily to shield users from surveillance.

In Apple’s iOS 8, most data stored on the phone and communications over services like iMessage were encrypted in a way that they were only accessible to the user – not even Apple had access.

A few of the factors influencing Silicon Valley companies’ public stance on encryption are in fact are surprisingly bureaucratic.

A spokesman for the National Security Council, Ned Price, said the White House is looking to find a compromise with tech companies on allowing access to law enforcement.

“This looks promising, but there’s still going to be tremendous pressure from law enforcement”, Peter Neumann, computer scientist and co-author of a paper examining the implications of providing the government with backdoor access to data, told The New York Times.

In addition, while the government would push companies to participate in security investigations, it will not push the companies to breach the security systems of their products.