Tech companies have found themselves up against the U.S. Department of Justice for years — in the past few months more than ever — as they attempt to secure consumer data. This week a report released The Wall Street Journal revealed the details of a meeting between Deputy Attorney General James Cole and Apple’s General Counsel Bruce Sewell. The meeting was in regards to Apple’s recent decision to enable default encryption on all of the devices it sells, meaning that instead of opting into data encryption, consumers are instead given the option to opt out.
The Justice Department has shown itself to be strongly opposed to Apple’s decision. According to the WSJ report, the Justice Department attempted to strong-arm Apple into reserving its decision by telling the company that one day, “A child would die because police wouldn't be able to scour a suspect's phone.” With any form of technology, there will be people who use it to commit unfortunate crimes, but that doesn’t mean that an entire country should give up its right to privacy or subject itself to hackers.
Most consumers and civil liberties groups have applauded Apple and Google, who recently made a similar announcement, for their commitments to user privacy. However, they have met stiff opposition from top law enforcement officials who have complained that the encryption will take away their access to information that they might be able to use during a criminal investigation.
In a recent speech, FBI Director James Comey made the government’s argument in favor of increased access to personal information; not surprisingly the American Civil Liberties Union was outraged. In response to Comey’s speech, Laura W. Murphy, the director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, issued a statement in which she said, “Federal law explicitly protects the right of companies to add encryption with no backdoors,” and she continues, “Any effort by the FBI to weaken encryption leaves our highly personal information and our business information vulnerable to hacking by foreign governments and criminals.”
As has happened several times in recent years, personal privacy has been pitted against law enforcement’s ability to access data. Attorney General Eric Holder made a statement at a recent conference in which he said, “It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy.” Holder’s stance on the issue is that tech companies can provide a backdoor through which the manufacturer will be able to access data stored on the device and provide it to a law enforcement agency.
The problem with a backdoor is that while it gives manufacturers access to data on the device, there is nothing to stop people from hacking into the backdoor and gaining access to personal information.
In the past year, Target saw how damaging a security breach was to its sales, and Apple saw firsthand how important it is for people to trust the security of their own devices in the aftermath of “Celebgate."
Apple is still working hard to gain back the trust of its customers. Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a statement in which he said, “At Apple, your trust means everything to us. That’s why we respect your privacy and protect it with strong encryption, plus strict policies that govern how all data is handled.”
Consumers have a right to know what is being done with their data and more importantly, they should have confidence in the fact that companies aren’t intentionally making their personal data more vulnerable.
The Justice Department has drawn a bleak picture of law enforcement’s future without access to personal data, but providing hackers with easy access to personal data is unacceptable. It’s time for the Justice Department to stop bullying companies and accusing them of “marketing to criminals.” But at the end of the day, the tech companies in the middle of this debate have a responsibility to their consumers, not the government agencies attempting to strong-arm them into compromising data.
Reach the columnist at zjosephs@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @zachjosephson
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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