New bill aims to prevent the FBI from forcing backdoors on companies

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden on Thursday introduced a bill that would prevent the government from forcing companies to design backdoors or security vulnerabilities into their products to aid surveillance. The Secure Data Act aims to preempt moves by the government to better eavesdrop over newer communications technologies, and is part of an overall bid by some legislators to place curbs on extensive government surveillance. A key legislation that would put curbs on the bulk collection of phone records by the U.S. National Security Agency, called the USA Freedom Act, could not move towards a final vote on the legislation in the Senate last month, despite backing from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Wyden said his bill comes in the wake of proposals by U.S. government officials to compel companies to build backdoors in the security features of their products. “Strong encryption and sound computer security is the best way to keep Americans’ data safe from hackers and foreign threats,” Wyden said in a statement Thursday.