{"id":837,"date":"2016-03-12T09:08:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T09:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/?p=837"},"modified":"2024-12-23T07:46:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T07:46:55","slug":"obama-absolutist-view-on-encryption-not-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/obama-absolutist-view-on-encryption-not-answer-837\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama: \u2018Absolutist view\u2019 on encryption not answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Obama:<\/a><\/p>\n

President Barack Obama said Friday that the encryption versus national security debate, currently being played out in Apple\u2019s legal fight against the federal government, won\u2019t be settled by taking an \u201cabsolutist view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing an audience of tech enthusiasts meeting in the Texas capital, Obama said both values are important.<\/p>\n

He restated his commitment to strong encryption, but also asked how will government catch child pornographers or disrupt terrorist plots if smartphones and other electronic devices are made ways that keep law enforcement from accessing the data stored on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy conclusion, so far, is you cannot take an absolutist view on this,\u201d Obama said at the South by Southwest Interactive festival.<\/p>\n

During a question-and-answer session with Evan Smith, CEO and editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, Smith asked Obama \u201cwhere do you come down\u201d on the question of balancing law enforcement\u2019s needs with an individual\u2019s right to privacy.<\/p>\n

Obama said government shouldn\u2019t be able to \u201cjust willy nilly\u201d get into smartphones that are full of very personal data. But at the same time, while asserting he\u2019s \u201cway on the civil liberties side,\u201d Obama said \u201cthere has to be some concession\u201d to be able to get to the information in certain cases.<\/p>\n

The president was not asked to comment on the litigation between Apple and the FBI. He also said he couldn\u2019t discuss specifics.<\/p>\n

Apple and the federal government are embroiled in a legal fight over Apple\u2019s refusal to help the FBI access an iPhone used in last year\u2019s terrorist attack San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people were killed. The FBI wants Apple to create a program specifically for that particular phone to help the bureau review the data on it. Apple has refused, and says to do what the government is asking would set a terrible precedent.<\/p>\n

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has sharply questioned FBI Director James Comey during congressional hearings on the matter, released a statement in which he said Obama\u2019s comments showed his \u201cfundamental lack of understanding of the tech community, the complexities of encryption and the importance of privacy to our safety in an increasingly digital world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no way to create a special key for government that couldn\u2019t also be taken advantage of by the Russians, the Chinese or others who want access to the sensitive information we all carry in our pockets every day,\u201d Issa said.<\/p>\n

Obama used his appearance at the decades-old festival to encourage the audience of tech enthusiasts to use their skills and imagination to \u201ctackle big problems in new ways.\u201d He said the administration already is using technology to make people\u2019s lives better, and cited as an example the streamlining of federal applications. But he urged industry leaders and entrepreneurs to use technology to help increase voter participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I\u2019m here, really, is to recruit all of you. It\u2019s to say to you, as I\u2019m about to leave office, how can we start coming up with new platforms and new ideas, new approaches across disciplines and across skill sets, to solve some of the big problems that we\u2019re facing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

South by Southwest Interactive is part of South by Southwest, a movie, music and interactive media festival that had been held in Austin for the past 30 years. Obama\u2019s appearance was the first by a sitting U.S. president.<\/p>\n

After the festival, which also is known as SXSW, Obama helped raise money for Democrats at a pair of fundraisers in Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Barack Obama said Friday that the encryption versus national security debate, currently being played out in Apple\u2019s legal fight against the federal government, won\u2019t be settled by taking an \u201cabsolutist view.\u201d Addressing an audience of tech enthusiasts meeting in the Texas capital, Obama said both values are important. He restated his commitment to strong … Continue reading Obama: \u2018Absolutist view\u2019 on encryption not answer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[335,52,58],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-absolutist-view","tag-encryption","tag-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}