The post-Snowden world has seen technology giants like Apple and Google embracing encryption more than ever before in order to combat government surveillance and potential cyberattacks, and the United States government has made it clear that it doesn’t like that. There have been numerous calls from government officials to force these companies to install backdoors in their encryption that would allow the government to have free access to user data, something that has been met with near universal backlash. With how little support such a move would have, the government has decided not to pursue anti-encryption legislation, at least for the time being.
Obama’s position on encryption is now public, as reported by the Washington Post. According to Ellen Nakashima and Andrea Peterson of the Post, Obama “will not —for now—call for legislation requiring companies to decode messages for law enforcement.” Instead, the Post reports, the “administration will continue trying to persuade companies that have moved to encrypt their customers’ data to create a way for the government to still peer into people’s data when needed for criminal or terrorism investigations.” While eschewing attempts to legislatively mandate that tech companies build backdoors into their services, the president is continuing the status quo – that is, informally pressuring companies to give the government access to unencrypted data. Basically, it’s a partial victory for those of us fighting for strong, secure, private communications online. The SaveCrypto.org coalition—representing more than 50,000 people and over 30 nonprofits and companies—has called on Obama to stand strong against attempts to undermine encryption. Specifically, the coalition states that no “legislation, executive order, or private agreement with the government should undermine our rights.”
