Diverse Group That Includes CEA, Google Urges White House To Oppose 'Backdoor' for Encrypted Devices

Nearly 150 privacy and human rights organizations, technology companies, trade associations and individual security and policy experts sent a joint letter to the White House Tuesday, defending Americans’ right to use strong encryption to protect their data and opposing the mandatory “backdoor” idea that would allow the government to access encrypted data. The debate over encryption was sparked by Apple’s announcement that new iPhones would be encrypted by default, the groups said. In response to law enforcement and intelligence officials, including FBI Director James Comey, who say Congress should legislate government access to encrypted devices, the letter said strong encryption is the “cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security.” It “protects billions of people every day against countless threats -- be they street criminals trying to steal our phones and laptops, computer criminals trying to defraud us, corporate spies trying to obtain our companies’ most valuable trade secrets, repressive governments trying to stifle dissent, or foreign intelligence agencies trying to compromise our and our allies’ most sensitive national security secrets.” They urged President Barack Obama to “reject” any proposal that would require U.S. companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products and to “focus on developing policies that will promote rather than undermine the wide adoption of strong encryption technology." Adobe, Apple, the Center for Democracy & Technology, Cisco, CEA, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Internet Association, Microsoft and New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute were among the signees. “The President has been letting his top intelligence and law enforcement officials criticize companies for making their devices more secure, and letting them suggest that Congress should pass anti-encryption, pro-backdoor legislation,” even though “encryption backdoors are bad for privacy, bad for security, bad for human rights, and bad for business,” New America’s Cybersecurity Initiative co-Director Kevin Bankston said in a news release. “Even the White House Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies has joined with most leading security experts to agree that strong encryption of data is necessary to protect against hacking and other computer fraud and abuse,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black in a news release.