Will New York Ban Smartphones With Security Protections?

[marmar]

Will New York Ban Smartphones With Security Protections?

Wednesday, 10 February 2016 00:00
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report


Is the New York legislature trying to ban iPhones? Not exactly, but state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban the sale of smartphones with data encryption technology that can keep both cops and criminal hackers from accessing personal data.

For months, law enforcement officials and the FBI have been railing against companies like Apple and Google for automatically scrambling personal data stored on mobile devices and some smartphone apps with encryption and hiding it behind locks that require personal passcodes, making the devices inaccessible to investigators.

Most recently, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance called on state and federal lawmakers to forbid smartphones and tablets that are "sealed off from law enforcement." Lawmakers in the New York State Assembly apparently took up the call and introduced legislation in January that would impose harsh fines on sellers of smartphones that cannot be unlocked and decrypted by manufacturers or operating system providers.

Jamie Williams, a legal fellow on the civil liberties team at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the bill ignores the reality that it is technically impossible to give the government access to personal data without making consumers more vulnerable.

"If device manufactures were to build such vulnerabilities into phones, it would be a serious threat to privacy and security - leaving us all less safe as a result," Williams said. "And a law mandating that a manufacturer retain the capability to decrypt or unlock a phone also could present significant First Amendment implications." ..............(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34747-will-new-york-ban-smartphones-with-security-protections

[IDemo]

1. Meaning no protection of such data as credit card numbers and banking info?

I find it difficult to believe that New York, a global financial center, would be so utterly clueless about the technical realities of what they propose.

[Downwinder]

2. They going to set up border checkpoints?

[mwooldri]

3. Free iphones anyone?

The sale of a smartphone to be made illegal, eh? I guess they have to be given away with a service contract. No phone "sold".

Besides Apple have said so themselves - they can't hack into their own phones when encrypted correctly.