As we have mentioned in previous articles, the move Apple and Google have made in encrypting their mobile OS’s to protect users from police is only getting hotter. Now Attorney General Eric Holder is weighing in on the situation with a few words about why he thinks this is a bad direction to take.
“It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy,” Holder said in a speech before the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online in Washington, according to a Sept. 30 report by Reuters. “When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.”
Holder is using the same arguments as all of the other officials who have spoken out against encryption of user phones. There is no doubt that some of these officials have valid points, but then so do the people who just want the government out of their business. Government agencies often overreach their powers – and that is why the people are embracing this new direction that both Apple and Google have taken.
“This is a very bad idea,” Cathy Lanier, chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, told Bloomberg. Smartphone communication is “going to be the preferred method of the pedophile and the criminal. We are going to lose a lot of investigative opportunities.”
What do you think of Attorney General Holder’s comments and the comments of other officials in this matter? Do you think they’re right and we should all give up privacy for the greater good? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.
[button link=”http://www.eweek.com/mobile/attorney-general-holder-speaks-out-against-apple-google-data-encryption.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: eweek[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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