FBI Director: Cellphone Encryption Has "Very Serious Consequences"

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By ERIC TUCKER and JACK GILLUM | Associated Press | 24 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director James Comey warned in stark terms Thursday against the push by technology companies to encrypt smartphone data and operating systems, arguing that murder cases could be stalled, suspects could walk free and justice could be thwarted by a locked phone or an encrypted hard drive. Privacy advocates called the concerns exaggerated and little more than recycled arguments the government has raised against encryption since the early 1990s.

Likening encrypted data to a safe that cannot be cracked or a closet door that won't open, Comey said the move by tech companies to protect communications in the name of privacy risks impeding a wide range of criminal investigations.

"We have the legal authority to intercept and access communications from information pursuant to court order, but we often lack the technical ability to do so," Comey said in a Brookings Institution speech.

The speech, which echoes concerns he and others in law enforcement have previously made, comes soon after announcement by Apple and Google that their new operating systems will be encrypted, or protected by coding. While the companies' actions are understandable, he said, "the place they are leading us is one we shouldn't go to without careful thought and debate."

Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/91fcd3e2e331491eb4594ea11c79a28f/fbi-director-cellphone-encryption-has-very-serious-consequences.html

[clydefrand]

1. So, how did the FBI

investigate BEFORE cell phones?

[SpankMe]

7. My thought exactly. n/t

[former9thward]

20. Wiretaps.

[billhicks76]

25. They Don't Get Court Orders

They act like a standing terrorist army letting cops looses on the highways doing one thing and one thing only...looking for drugs and money. They aren't there to protect anyone. The Drug War is a racket and they all get paid fleecing the public. They want to read people's mail and listen to their private conversations and they expect people to go along?

[dogknob]

42. Back then, they had THESE guys:

[notrightatall]

2. Too damn bad.

?1342830425

[blkmusclmachine]

22. Cameras and recording microphones are finding their way into our TV sets. Must be why the Feds

pushed for digital formatting, irregardless of their bullshit lies to the contrary.

[billhicks76]

26. Exactly

They can use people's private lives as leverage to blackmail them because if you are a judge, attorney, journalist or politician then they have a use for you.

[Ampersand Unicode]

34. In Soviet America, TV watches YOU.

1984 was 30 years behind schedule.

[hlthe2b]

3. Call the waaahmbulance.... You'd think after years of excesses and abuse of the system in place

there might be an attempt to present a more compelling case than this.

[Ratty]

4. He's slipping

I didn't see any mention in the article about pedophiles and what he's supposed to say to parents who come to him in tears. Won't somebody please think of the children?!!!

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. Fear! Terror! Our 4th Amendment Rights to Privacy in our Persons, Homes and Papers threaten

National Security!

We must give up our rights so the FBI and other law agencies don't have to actually WORK!? They can sit on their arses while the NSA sucks and analyzes our 4th Amendment protected private electronic papers.

[Adrahil]

6. To be clear.... the 4th applies to UNREASONABLE search and seizure.

If the cops have a court order, then they have the right to search. Having said that, I don;t see any obligation for people to make such searches easier... not even actual criminals.

[Dont call me Shirley]

13. But they do not have the right of unfettered access to our private papers. They must have a warrant.

Corporations/Government have usurped our right to privacy in our papers. Our electronic devices are our private papers. Whether any private company is has permission to collect our private papers, is a matter for Congress/us to decide. But ANYONE, except for the actual owner of the electronic papers, wanting to look through those papers should need a warrant or permission from the owner/originator of those papers.

[msanthrope]

17. Smith v. Maryland definitely needs an update, but business

records are not your private papers.

[Dont call me Shirley]

29. Ok then neither private nor public entities have the right to collect our private phone calls, texts

Emails, Cloud input.

I'll read the Smith v. Maryland decision, although not good with legalese.

[msanthrope]

30. Well....the text, or substance should require a warrant, but the pen register....

effectively the numbers you dial, or the addresses you send email to, fall under the the business records exception to the 4th amendment. Been that way since Smith.

[Dont call me Shirley]

31. Thanks for the info. I'll read the decision.

[Ampersand Unicode]

35. Far as I'm concerned, a Word document on my HD counts as private "papers"

But leave it to the dumbfucks at Big Brother Inc. to throw out the word "effects" (because they don't know what it means) and hone in literally on the word "papers." No, as far as I'm concerned, a blank ream of Hammermill or an empty DVD-RW in my possession is private even though it has nothing on it. The right to privacy is unequivocal and doesn't just kick in when you have "something to hide."

[villager]

8. Unfortunately, we've already been lead to a fucking place "without careful thought and debate"

And it smacks of totalitarinism.

[GGJohn]

9. I guess Mr. Comey has forgotten that here in the US, we have this thing called the Bill of Rights,

and contained in this BoR is this pesky little thing called the 4th Amendment.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It seems to me that Mr. Comey and the NSA, FBI, CIA, are more of a threat to the American people than any encryption that the telecommunications corps. come up with.

[Ampersand Unicode]

39. I don't use Twitter, but...

Would be nice if someone could start a "viral campaign" to send that very same message over and over again to Comey and anyone else pertinent to this whole thing. (I doubt Comey even has a handle.) I don't have a way of counting characters but just use ellipses if it runs over 140. Hashtag, #4A or #PleadTheFourth or something to that effect.

Want to get really meta, send it to @Twitter.

[closeupready]

10. Personally, I don't care. Their powers need to be checked, period.

I don't trust the tech companies either, but as long as the argument is out there, that's what I subscribe to.

[NaturalHigh]

11. Yes it does...

the FBI might have to work a little harder to do its job AND respect Constitutional rights.

Works for me.

[AngryAmish]

12. Everyone, all together, tell Jimmy Comey to Blow It Out Your Ass.

[mrdmk]

19. Just say what is on our collective minds without holding back

[The Green Manalishi]

14. Dear Mr. Comey: FOAD EOM

[Ampersand Unicode]

38. Posted from my "low-tech" iPad

[Lodestar]

15. Oh....so NOW they want a public debate about privacy

after taking so many steps over that line without public knowledge.

[GeorgeGist]

16. Jim, it's the Kobayashi Maru.

[Demeter]

18. Nonsense! It's The Corbomite Maneuver

"Not chess, Mr. Spock....Poker!"

[Helen Borg]

21. Yep, very serious: they won't be able to see what's on my phone.

[hughee99]

23. This is all for show.

They're trying to sell the public on the idea that they can't figure out the encryption. When the cell companies win this case, everyone will FEEL like their phones are safe because the government made so much noise about it. Meanwhile, it will be business as usual.

[sendero]

24. YOU abused your power..

... and performed surveillance without the constitutionally required permission.

This is the backlash result.

Blame yourself.

[billhicks76]

27. Comey Proving He's A Fascist

He knows it's all about their previous drug war. They aren't protecting anyone.

[unblock]

28. yeah and locking your front door should also be illegal

just in case the government wants to take a peek.

[christx30]

32. Curtains. Envelopes. All passwords.

"From now on, all US citizens will change their underwear 10 times per day. And you will wear it on the outside of your pants, so we can check."

[Ampersand Unicode]

36. Some are born to greatness. Others wear it on the outside of their shorts.

[Ampersand Unicode]

37. You can lock your front door...

...but they'll find a way in through the rear hatch!

[Ash_F]

33. Yes, it will force them to to mandate the implantation of mind probes. /nt

[FiveGoodMen]

40. Government agencies uber alles

Message is very clear.


(Nazi, scum)

[nilesobek]

41. Comey has watched too many

episodes of MI5.

[LiberalFighter]

43. If they can't get the data through other means then they are the Keystone Cops.