Congress won't consider mandatory encryption bill after Apple battle - report
Draft legislation that could've forced U.S. corporations like Apple to decrypt data on-demand following a court order won't be formally introduced this year, and has lost the support needed to advance anyway, sources said on Friday.
The bill -- backed by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein -- didn't have the support of the Obama administation, the sources told Reuters. Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden in fact claimed that the White House has "dropped anchor and taken down the sail."
Although Burr and Feinstein are the Republican and Democratic heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee, respectively, Committee members from both political aisles have reportedly backed away from the legislation, particularly Democrats. No one in the House ever offered support.
Even the CIA and the NSA have been "ambivalent" about the draft legislation, known as the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, according to Reuters. Although backdoors are a common spying tool, officials with the agencies are said to have been worried that the law would interfere with their own encryption needs.
The Burr-Feinstein bill emerged in the wake of Apple's fight with the Department of Justice and the FBI over unlocking the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Although the DoJ ultimately withdrew a court order asking Apple to build a workaround for iOS' passcode retry limits, encryption issues had gained more prominence, and indeed many in U.S. law enforcement -- such as FBI director James Comey -- are still asking for backdoors, worried that encryption is putting some communications beyond their reach.
The bill -- backed by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein -- didn't have the support of the Obama administation, the sources told Reuters. Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden in fact claimed that the White House has "dropped anchor and taken down the sail."
Although Burr and Feinstein are the Republican and Democratic heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee, respectively, Committee members from both political aisles have reportedly backed away from the legislation, particularly Democrats. No one in the House ever offered support.
Even the CIA and the NSA have been "ambivalent" about the draft legislation, known as the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, according to Reuters. Although backdoors are a common spying tool, officials with the agencies are said to have been worried that the law would interfere with their own encryption needs.
The Burr-Feinstein bill emerged in the wake of Apple's fight with the Department of Justice and the FBI over unlocking the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Although the DoJ ultimately withdrew a court order asking Apple to build a workaround for iOS' passcode retry limits, encryption issues had gained more prominence, and indeed many in U.S. law enforcement -- such as FBI director James Comey -- are still asking for backdoors, worried that encryption is putting some communications beyond their reach.
Comments
It isn't sanity, it is just deflecting interest while they try to burry the same legislation in some massive bill that nobody reads fully.
Obama, Feinstein and the others are just ignorant liberals promoting their point of view because it is feel good. They literally have no idea what they are involved in so they take the knee jerk reaction of limiting freedom even more.
Only flagship devices with enough processing power. That's what you get when you use inferior software encryption. One day Android might catch up to the iPhone 3GS from 2009 and get real hardware encryption.
Comey wasn't an Obama appointee and the FBI is pretty independent from the Gov since Watergate.
Everybody in Washington is a dumbass when it comes to encryption, left, right and center.
Implementation is also dodgy because of how it is implemented. Even in high end Androids, it's not better than it was in pre 5s phones with IOS 7 (and probably substantially worse).
Better you should think about what they have on Feinstein to make her such an advocate for them.
How naive can you get?
So you think the FBI suddenly becomes all liberal and ignorant when a Democrat gets elected? You think Comey is a liberal Democrat following Obama's policy? Did all the Cheney-Bush people quit and go home?