The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is not happy with Apple and Google for including encryption on their smartphone products, the agency’s director said Thursday.
During a meeting with reporters at the HQ, the FBI Director James Comey said he believes that a quick access to a smartphone will let law enforcement save lives in some kidnapping and terrorism cases.
Mr Comey said he is ‘very concerned’ about the whole encryption thing.
“What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,” he said.
The FBI is in talks with both Apple and Google over its concerns. Mr Comay claimed that he is more concerned for the people rather than anything else.
“I’d hate to have people look at me and say, ‘Well how come you can’t save this kid?’ ‘How come you can’t do this thing?” said Mr Comey in a briefing.
Earlier Apple announced that its new iOS 8 software will come with file encryption system for which it has no keys. This means it would not be able to comply with any official request to help police get at the data on those devices, according to reports.
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Google came up with a similar plan to enable encryption system on its next Android version by default.
“What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law. “I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no-one in this country is beyond the law,” he added.
People may have believed what the Director of the FIB said if we were in a Pre-Snowden era, but in a Post-Snowden era like today; it’s almost impossible to believe a word coming out from security/law enforcement agencies such as the FBI or NSA.
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