{"id":848,"date":"2016-03-18T03:20:55","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T03:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/?p=848"},"modified":"2024-12-23T07:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T07:46:45","slug":"apple-fbi-fight-may-be-first-salvo-in-encryption-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/apple-fbi-fight-may-be-first-salvo-in-encryption-war-848\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple-FBI fight may be first salvo in encryption war"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Apple-FBI<\/a><\/p>\n

The Apple-FBI fight may just be the opening salvo in a broader war over encryption, as technology companies continue to lock up their users\u2019 messages, photos and other data to shield them from thieves and spies \u2014 and, incidentally, criminal investigators.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp, the globally popular messaging system owned by Facebook, has already run into trouble on this front in Brazil. WhatsApp encrypts all user messages in \u201cend to end\u201d fashion, meaning no one but the sender and recipient can read them. Brazilian authorities arrested a Facebook executive this month after the company said it couldn\u2019t unscramble encrypted messages sought by police.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials are debating how to enforce a similar wiretap order for WhatsApp communications in a U.S. criminal case, the New York Times reported. WhatsApp started as a way to exchange written messages over the Internet, but it has added services like photo-sharing and voice calling, while gradually building encryption into all those formats.<\/p>\n

Spokesmen for WhatsApp and the Justice Department declined comment on the Times report, which said the wiretap order had been sealed to keep details secret. The Brazilian case is pending, although the Facebook executive was released from jail after a day.<\/p>\n

For now, U.S. authorities and the tech industry are watching for the outcome of Apple\u2019s legal battle with the FBI, which wants to force the company to help unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. But as more companies explore adding encryption, further confrontations are likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can say, without a doubt, there\u2019s going to be more pressure on app-makers now,\u201d said Nate Cardozo, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.<\/p>\n

Cardozo said he\u2019s aware of other recent cases in which U.S. authorities have approached individual companies (he wouldn\u2019t name them) that use encryption and warned them that criminals or terrorists are using their services. Cardozo said authorities have urged those companies to redesign their apps or provide other technical solutions that would let agents read the encrypted messages.<\/p>\n

Tech companies say they don\u2019t want to interfere with legitimate criminal investigations or national security matters. Instead, they argue they\u2019re concerned about hacking, privacy invasion and violations of civil rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the government\u2019s job to protect public safety,\u201d said Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser. \u201cOur job in the tech sector is to support that goal by providing the best data security.\u201d<\/p>\n

While law enforcement authorities have chafed at tech companies\u2019 use of encryption, national security officials have warned against weakening encryption. \u201cWe\u2019re foursquare behind strong data security and encryption,\u201d Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a tech audience this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Apple-FBI fight may just be the opening salvo in a broader war over encryption, as technology companies continue to lock up their users\u2019 messages, photos and other data to shield them from thieves and spies \u2014 and, incidentally, criminal investigators. WhatsApp, the globally popular messaging system owned by Facebook, has already run into trouble … Continue reading Apple-FBI fight may be first salvo in encryption war<\/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":[337,52,338],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apple-fbi","tag-encryption","tag-encryption-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","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=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}