Trump Likely to Go Against Tech Firms on Encryption, Says EFF Senior Attorney

President-elect Donald Trump has said little about cryptography directly, but he made it "very clear" he was on the side of the FBI during its court battle to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by a mass shooter (see 1607260037), wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Nate Cardozo in blog post reviewing crypto law activity in 2016. He quoted Trump as saying, “'To think that Apple won't allow us to get into [the shooter's] cellphone? . . . Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it up.' He also called for a boycott of Apple until Apple caved. But like so much else, Trump has offered no specifics." Cardozo said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump's pick for attorney general, "is widely speculated to be anti-crypto," although the senator has offered no specifics. On the FBI vs. Apple fight, Cardozo wrote Monday that if the law enforcement agency had won, the U.S. government could have gotten legal authority to order American tech companies to create back doors into their products (see 1612210005). "Indeed, the FBI’s demand was never about 'just that one phone' and was all about creating legal precedent," he said.