“U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urged technology companies to preserve law-enforcement access to smartphone data, responding to new privacy features from Apple Inc. and Google Inc. that he said would hamper investigations of child sex abuse,” Del Quentin Wilber reports for Bloomberg News. “‘It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy,’ he said. ‘When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Think of The Children™. Whenever you hear that line of horseshit, look for ulterior motives. Fear mongers: Those who use of fear, scare tactics, and emotional appeals in attempts to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end.
“Holder is the highest-profile official to protest the encryption of phones by Google and Apple,” Wilber reports. “The dispute is the latest flare-up pitting the federal government against the nation’s leading technology companies since National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed last year the extent of U.S. snooping on phone and Internet communications — and how companies cooperated.”
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s get real: Google’s promise of encryption will take several years to roll out to significant numbers of fragmandroid sufferers. Apple’s is already in the majority of iOS users hands right now.
Wilber reports, “In remarks prepared for a speech in Washington, Holder didn’t say how the Justice Department hoped to change the companies’ minds but hoped they ‘would be willing to work with us to ensure that law enforcement retains the ability, with court-authorization, to lawfully obtain information in the course of an investigation, such as catching kidnappers and sexual predators.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, doubling down on Think of The Children™ – and from a short-timer, hell-bent on amassing a minor fortune from the private sector, no less. Desperate times for those who serially ignore the Fourth Amendment, these are.
“Apple described the new measures on Sept. 17 on its website, noting that it can no longer bypass customers’ passcodes and ‘therefore cannot access this data,'” Wilber reports. “‘It’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running’ the latest version of the company’s operating system, iOS 8, the Cupertino, California-based company said.”
“Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey entered the debate last week, telling reporters that he opposed the companies’ decision. He said the FBI was working to get them to change the policies,” Wilber reports. “‘What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,’ Comey said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Stop moaning and whining, you lazy bastard, and go read the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution for what sounds like will be the first time in your life.
That is the law you’ve placed yourself and your cronies above, Comey. The supreme law of the land which you swore an oath to uphold, no less.
Prior to 2007, there were no evidence bonanzas from warrantless searches and seizures available right in suspects’ pockets and, yet, somehow, law enforcement personnel actually managed to solve crimes without infringing citizen’s basic constitutional rights. Use valid search warrants the way you used them before Steve Jobs gave the world the modern smartphone and tablet. It’s past time to return to following the U.S. Constitution. If it takes force from leaders like Apple for constitutional rights to actually be enforced, so be it.
The U.S. government brought this upon itself.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Eric Holder, get lost and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1961
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
What if Osama bin Laden had an iPhone? – September 26, 2014
FBI blasts Apple for protective users’ privacy by locking government, police out of iPhones and iPads – September 25, 2014
Apple thinks different about privacy – September 23, 2014
Apple’s iOS Activation Lock reduces iPhone thefts, Samsung phone thefts skyrocket – September 18, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Would you trade privacy for national security? Most Americans wouldn’t – August 6, 2014
Apple begins encrypting iCloud email sent between providers – July 15, 2014
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
U.S. NSA seeks to build quantum computer to crack most types of encryption – January 3, 2014
Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up U.S. feds’ surveillance – April 4, 2013
Before cell phones existed, police somehow managed to do their jobs. The only thing they could get from regular phones were call records from the phone company, and, if they got a warrant, they could tap the line.
How is it that encrypting data on cell phones prevents them from doing either of these things? The only thing encryption stops is unauthorized spying on private citizens.
At last Apple figured a way to screw Eric Holder back for all his misdeeds and false prosecution with the so-called agency model publishing scandal. Fsck off Holder!
It’s funny because you answered your own question. The police had access to everything. The could tap the phone line, they could search your home or office. Nothing was really secure from the government.
“The only thing encryption stops is unauthorized spying on private citizens.”
Well no, the whole point here is that encryption is stopping authorized spying by the government… as in even with a warrant, the encrypted data can’t be obtained.
Not really, since with a warrant the government could imprison the private citizen until they give up the key. This has already been done (US vs Ramona Fricosu). The point is they would have to go to a real court, none of this secret court nonsense.
Ramona Fricosu isn’t a precedent. She claimed she didn’t remember the password, and her ex-husband later provided a list of potential passwords. One of them worked, and she was released. She plea bargained her case, resulting in the mandatory decryption never being challenged.
But the point I was making was as it pertained to spying, which it does prevent, even with a warrant.
On the other point, the big problem I have with mandatory decryption is that I know people who have real problems managing their password (hi mom!). You could end up with someone being held in contempt indefinitely because they can’t remember their password, or because it was changed by someone else, or because the device didn’t even belong to them (not necessarily stolen).
Spying isn’t what the AG was arguing for (I don’t imagine that would be very popular). He said it would prevent a search warrant from catching all those child molesters out there the feds are always looking for. The government always has the power to get what it wants–they have guns, planes and tanks. However they always go for the path of least resistance. So they would much prefer a government mandated peep whole into your bedroom.
“Spying isn’t what the AG was arguing for”
Read the original comment. That’s what I was replying to.
A search warrant issued to a company like Apple for information doesn’t necessarily mean that the warrant would be public, nor that the person(s) that the data is being obtained from as the target of the warrant would be informed.
That is essentially spying. Obtaining data, monitoring and recording communications without the target being aware of such activity.
The canary indicated that Apple did experience a warrant to release customer data and was prohibited from notifying the customer as well as announcing to the public that it had ever done this for anyone.
By using the encryption that Apple has adopted, this all goes away as even with a warrant, Apple can’t provide any data, because it doesn’t have it (within the scope of the subject… the data that is encrypted).
Hence, the encryption is stopping authorized (with a warrant) spying.
I only wish that Holder and the Feds were as generous with the IRS emails & data that seems to have simply ‘disappeared’ from govt servers regarding IRS political bullying/stalking. This administration is such a joke. I’d laugh but it’s just too sad..
Don’t blame it on this administration. This is a direct result of the Patriot Act. You can thank George W.
Belly laugh of the year!
Tin-foil hat alert!
MDN, grow up. I know you have no respect for this country that provides you so much but seriously you are the one that needs to STFU. Yes, I know most of you will hate on me but we can defend and promote Apple without resulting to a high school ass with no respect.
Pussy.
230+ years ago, saps like you were curtsying to the king and offering the red coats your finest tea, taxed up the wazoo as it were.
MDN take spot on! Lazy Government Bastards.
Holder is a government putz!
Holder is worried about the children He should have thought of that when he was fronting guns to the Mexican drug cartels which resulted in killings that left many children fatherless and subject to abuse and resulted in deaths of US Border Parol agents and I suspect some DEA agents.
Add to that the millions Apple wasted fighting trunped up charges on ibooks price fixing. Make Holder ambassador to the new Islamic State.
What the fvck does any of this have to do with Islam or another religion? I’m Not Muslim, but I have as much respect for the misguided who worship Allah as I do for the misguided who worship God, and so should anyone who isn’t prejudiced (since that’s kinda the definition).
Any other opinion you have amounts to jack sh!t when you end it with a jibe at a religion in which the vast majority of worshippers are peaceful, law-abiding people. It’s no different than lumping all Christians in with those responsible for the Crusades or the Inquisition, or referring to all atheists as immoral.
Idiot.
You aren’t from around here? When someone says “Islamic State” (with capital letters ), they obviously mean the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”, a self-proclaimed country within the territories of current Iraq and Syria. US is currently leading an air campaign against it.
Over-reaction if I ever saw one. Making Holder ambassador to an Islamic State is not a slam on Islam.
Sensitive. Boy, are you sensitive. I think you read too much into his post.
However, I wonder what the new Islamic State is that was referred to. Is that us, the new United Islamic States of America? Wouldn’t surprise me as I had predicted this in 2008 to only a few friends which was Barack Obama would allow this to happen. Let’s hope this never happens. I don’t want O’Reiley to write a book called “Killing America”.
And, by the way, Allah is also a god, much like any other god, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or other.
moron! allah is not a god, never was. allah is satan, at the very least a demon.
there are not many gods, there is one God. the judgment about to befall your country is in large measure due to America’s mocking and rejecting of God.
While I don’t want to bother getting into a philosophical discussion, even if we accept that there exists one (and only one) god, different religions of the world have different names for him/her/it. For Muslims, god’s name is Allah; for Christians and Jews, it is Yahweh (YHWH); Hindus usually call god Vishnu; Buddhists don’t really have the concept of god as a being, and so on.
I’m not sure what judgement will befall my country, or what it has to do with America, but I’m sure god, religion and practice of it (whichever it may be) either in America, or in my country, has nothing to do with it.
Predrag is correct, sort-of.
Allah and YHWH are the same Old Testament God. As far as I know, Vishnu and others, are not Old Testament Gods. Allah is YHWH in another language.
Also, there is more than one god and the Old Testament says so. For example, Moses was given the title god and so were the Pharaohs. As far as I know, Lucifer is the god of this world, or so he claims. There have been dictators that believed they were gods, i.e. Ceasar et al, and same with celebrities, sports figures, and politicians, or at least they are worshipped as if… .
There is also God the Father and God the Son (read the New Testament rather than someone else’s interpretation). According to my math, that’s two.
By declaring those believers misguided, you are announcing that you are, in fact, prejudiced.
He’s not prejudiced, he’s expressing his opinion, aka his right.
It IS funny to be reading a topic that both promotes the protection of children and respect for a religion whose founder’s favorite wife was 9 when he married her.
you would benefit greatly from varying your reading material. islam is not a religion of peace, nor does it claim to be. anyone who makes such a claim has not read the koran.
clearly, it would surprise you to learn that paedophilia (especially boys) is culturally entrenched in islamic society.
a male is not considered a man until he has facial hair, and boys are considered female and therefore objects of sexual desire. no wonder that almost all muslim men have beards, at least a moustache. and at least early in life, sex is a pain in the ass.
interesting also that at holder’s elite level child sex rings are rumored to be flourishing, even up to the white house of g.h. w. bush. so, this concern for the welfare of children seems more pseudo than sincere.
stop smoking the pipe of political correctness.
The people who have no respect for this country are our current attorney general and his DOJ. He’s been held in contempt of Congress for withholding information, and protected by his accomplice in crime, Obama. Their scheme to promote gun control legislation by creating crime in Mexico with illegally sold American guns would be impeachment material if the president hadn’t invoked executive privilege and if Holder hadn’t agreed to lie for the president. They are both in it up to their eyeballs and have the blood of more than one US border patrol agent on their hands. To whine about not being able to illegally gather evidence on citizens while withholding evidence in a criminal case against themselves is as dishonest and as reprehensible as anyone can get.
That you somehow swallow their line of reasoning, and want to protect them while invoking patriotism is incomprehensible. Are you truly that stupid?
Eric Holder – leaving a U.S. States Attorney General Office near you. And it can’t happen soon enough.
Zeke – Amen!!!
I’m pretty leftist liberal and about as unpatriotic as they come and even I think MDN is spot-on. Fsck this guy.
After the government is caught red handed trampling all over our fourth amendment rights with utter impunity, this is the backlash they should have known was coming.
What a great TV ad. Show Eric Holder wining about not being able the hack Apple iPhones with the Fourth Amendment as background behind the government demanding access to the iOS Apple devices. Call it “64-bit and secure”!
MDN Take is perfect. Year after year I watch as the Federal Government grows and tightens its control on every day people. We pas tens of thousands of new laws in this country every year. Never is there a single one designed to protect US, the people from our so called “representatives.” The only thing that does that and does it well is our Constitution.
Holder was a disgusting Attorney General. From literally BULLYING Aaron Swartz to death, to glossing over fast and furious, IRSgate, to sending 40 FBI agents to investigate the death of one two bit thug in Ferguson, he’s been nothing but a trumped up ass licking screwup in a tie.
Now when a corporation takes a stand to protect our privacy above and beyond anything the Obama Administration ever considered, he’s got a problem with it. Get out Holder. Get out and stay out.
Yes and no. I think besides the Child predators we have to think of terrorists as well. Every time I hear more totally impossible to access security, I think about the terrorists going “Great! We can now plan detailed attacks with no worries of discovery!” Our right to privacy for conversations with grandma or your boss is going to bite us in the ass when terrorists see great advantages to these features.
“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
Patrick Henry
When the authorities stop hiding what they do from the American public, and we don’t need people like Snowden to leak our government’s crimes, then maybe people will allow the government some slack. Right now there are too many groups whining about the loss of their ability to ignore our fourth amendment rights to even consider letting them have their way.
And anyone concerned about this abuse of of the fourth amendment should be just as concerned about the attacks on the second
I see where you are coming from, but I think we will need every tool possible to combat ISIS and others of their kind. Tools like this are an absolute advantage to their confidential plot communication, and will bite us in the ass in the long run. We are about to have far bigger issues with ISIS than any Snowdon concerns.
Holder is a lying, corrupt piece of filth that should be in prison, and anyone who defends that clown either has an agenda or is just plain stupid.
scott31270 Don’t Tread on Me! Eric Holder is a damn oppressive tyrant. Thank you MDN for affirming the Constitution and standing up for individual freedom against corrupt government bastards who should read the Constitution before they wipe their fanny with it!
Unless you want to live with total chaos, be careful about which limits are put on the help you may need to defend your property. Now those with no property may just want to steal from those that like to own things and they’ll be able to escape justice. Not a world that I want.
You looking up girls’ skirts with that camera, scotty 90210?
I still feel cautious to use anything that records fingerprints etc on any device. Including apples. I also doubt industry fending off the Feds.
So, they can:
1. Intercept every email, web search & phone call
2. Watch our movements with traffic cams & satellites
3. Track everything we purchase with credit, and where
4. See everything in our bank accounts
5. Perform surveillance at any time
but they need more info?
Next an implant WILL record everything you discuss.
It would be great for all the people against this that their kids become the victims. Then we will see how high and mighty they are when their child is taken by a sexual predator. Everyone knows it is easy to be high and mighty until the issue actually affects you personally. To bad these #J$KMND can’t see past their nose.
Gullible pawns like you are part of the problem, not the solution.
It would not be great. I would not wish that fate on any child, on any family. You are a worm to post something like that.
See my reply to Scott31270 above. Are you truly that stupid?
“either stand with us or with the child pornographers”
===
That was uttered by a ruling Conservative party member in Canada in support of their internet spying bill, the cleverly named “Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act”.
The backlash was immediate. They could ignore the “liberal” civil libertarians, but not from their own conservative base, and the bill died a well-deserved death… at least until its zombie came back in another bill a year later.
Which goes to prove that it doesn’t matter if the party forming the government is left or right, whichever one is in power will always abuse that power and trust the people gave them.
Can you cite a single case where a child’s life was saved, just in time, by forcibly cracking an unencrypted smartphone? Or maybe where a child’s life was definitely lost because a smartphone was unable to be cracked in time?
Because neither Holder nor Comey bothered to. It would have lent some credibility to their argument.
Modern law enforcement is convinced everyone is guilty of some crime; it is just a matter of determining what that crime is. Since they have that perspective, it is only natural that any privacy is “concealing the crime”.
There are so many national, regional, and local laws against individual actions, almost anything a person does is a crime. But don’t you worry, we are protected. Oppressive government bullshit!
Can’t please everyone.
So our illustrious, short-timer Attorney General who avoided dealing with any of the criminals who caused the financial crisis is now criticizing Apple for allowing their customers to exercise their 4th Amendment rights.
Hey Holder, next time you wipe your ass with our Constitution, why don’t you take a moment to read it first.
The last AG that approached the criminality level of Holder was John Mitchell. He worked for Nixon.
And take your fuscking bought judges amd hounds with you asshole!
What all the politicians need to realize is that it’s their proven willingness to totally disregard the U.S. Constitution and authorize & encourage government agencies to engage in wholesale spying on citizens that is driving these developments. If you are a proven serial liar you shouldn’t expect the public at large to believe anything you say.
Dear Mr Holder,
Go ask Amazon for help. I doubt Apple is going to listen to you. Next time, think twice before you put your DOJ henchmen onto someone with trumped-up charges. Especially when you want a favor from them.
— A Concerned Citizen
Apple’s move is VERY smart. Apple does not profit from customer (user) data. Google does. Why not make it impossible to comply with a Federal order to supply private customer data? Apple is not refusing to cooperate; Apple simply cannot comply – it’s not technically possible.
It’s like the IRS saying it cannot supply certain IRS employee email records, because the hard drives are toast and there are no backups. The IRS is not (technically) saying it refuses to cooperate; it’s saying it cannot (technically) comply. In Apple’s case, the reason is “as designed.” It’s intentional (only the customers have the “key”). For the IRS email debacle, in the best case scenario, the reason is negligence or incompetence. In the worst case, the reason is also “intentional.” 😉
Apple’s “protecting customer privacy” move pressures Google to do the same (or Google’s version of “the same”), eventually. But Google wants its own access to its users’ data (for commercial reasons); how can it build a system that shuts out potential government intrusion, while keeping its own access in place? So, I predict Google will lobby the “Feds” (behind closed doors) to FORCE Apple to keep a door open to the customers’ private data.
Either that or the whole thing is a farce since the government has access to the telecoms anyway. They probably will still get backdoors into routers, too.
Exactly so. The Fed is not simply working with Apple to get them to “change their policy”. It has NOTHING to do with policy. They want Apple to change their technology which is quite a different thing altogether. Unless they have a warrant for every person on the planet, the constitution forbids this kind of action.
Hey MDN who’s that at your door? IRS!
We the people need to have some sort of revolt on his statement! Government as no right to our privacy!
Mr Holder, perhaps the door will hit you in the ass on your way out. You are a disgrace.
As usual the media hucksters and WS shysters make it a point to mention google in everything that apple does. Google has been and will always be a collaborator with the powers that be (rather those who believe dellussionally that they own us). Do you really trust google to protect your privacy. I hope everyone switches to duckduckgo.
Trust… Google… Where’s the punchline?
I heard a BRILLIANT interview with world patriot Julian Assange yesterday via NPR (US national public radio) whereby many of the dirty details of Google’s in-depth collaboration with treasonous aspects of the NSA ad nauseam were clearly laid bare. Mr. Assange was entirely courteous and rational, still a great force for sanity in our deranged world of deceit.
Can you post a link?
*rummaging around* Here we go:
http://www.cbc.ca/q/schedule/2014/09/29/mon-sept-29/
It’s from the ‘Q’ radio program from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Look for the “Listen” button under the triptych of interviewee pictures. It’s offered as a program on the USA’s NPR stations.
Thanks!
reading your ‘world patriot’ comment about ‘judas’ assange helps me understand your comments about ‘gods’ above. i left a comment for you.
What ‘gods’? What ‘Judas’? Assange is no Judas by any definition. I don’t think I want to visit your thought realm.
Is there a full moon out tonight or something? Such things never affect me but I certainly watch the lunar trend in others. Have a better day tomorrow folks.
Holder can go S a D
After he has whipped his $ maker he can remember his civics lessons from high school. The government should fear the people.
Sorry to go of topic but it is people like holder that the 2nd Admendment exists. If you disagree that is fine but remember you do have that right\power and it is important
More blah blah from a government by the government for the government.
Face it on two fronts:
1. There is not a law preventing anyone from making an unsearchable device. I’m sure the law makers will be changing that though, to suit the government’s needs.
2. With the long long list of actions that the United Hates has performed over the years it’s clear to see the huge divide between legality and morality in that nation. Invading another country for no reason, torture, espionage, sabotage to name but a few on a very long and growing list. Nazi Germany had a similar gap between legality and morality.
Now MDN has some darn right serious comments on the issue that get my thumbs up. That being said, I’ll take it one step further particularly with “The U.S. government brought this upon itself.” and muse that the people of the United States allowed their government to bring this upon themselves and it is up to the people to do something about it, because their government certainly won’t.
I hear Americans talk about their patriotism to their country, fine and dandy. What about their patriotism to the world? Crickets chirping would be a much better answer than the explosive projections they propel all over the globe. Those of the free world know that they have left the building of modern civilization. Let’s hope the people, by the people and for the people can get their act together.
WE THE PEOPLE urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States, just has he had sworn to do before he was given his office.
But Mr. Holder did not. There’s a criminal term for that.
Next up: We The People urge this CROOK to departure from our government ASAP. Get going Mr. Holder! Please don’t hang around screwing things up further while we wait for your replacement!
Dear mr burocrat, if you have to Reach for evidence in a smartphone, you are so useless because that means the crime was already done.
I really think that your problem is that you are not going to be able to see those pictures anymore you got from getting illegally “legal” into other’s people lives.
Have you hear about “crime prevention”? Is something that happens when real police do their real job.
you know, you raise an interesting, yet cognitively dissonant and ultimately disturbing point….
we all (excepting of course professional criminals) pretty much would prefer that crimes were not committed and are supportive of the notion of crime prevention.
but, by referencing uselessness “…because the crime was already done” and crime prevention “…is something that happens when real police do their real job”…. that scares me
because that is exactly the common sense and semingly benign sounding rationale – or assumption – held by those like eric holder and others who have no compunctions about trampling over our 4th amendment constitutional rights.
they will protect us from crime or terrorism, give us security, make america safe… you name it. all we have to do is give up our rights and just lay back and enjoy it, i guess.
life is full of risk, benjamin franklin was right. so was sinclair lewis who wrote “when fascism comes to america, it will be wrapped in a flag and waving a cross”
so beware…
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
People are too willing to throw their freedoms away for the sake of perceived security. The Patriot Act, which allowed these abuses, should be repealed. It’s turning the USA into a police state.
Anything that inhibits the government’s ability to unlawfully invade our privacy is a good thing in my book.
As usual, both sides are expressing opinions on subjects that are clearly outside their areas of expertise:
1) On the one hand, Apple is not acting improperly by failing to comply with a warrant when it has no power to do so. It is under no duty to leave the devices it makes wide open, any more than homeowners have a duty to leave their houses unlocked in order to make searching them easier. There are simply no technical means for the company to provide a “back door” that will allow instant access to the district judge sitting in Loving County, Texas (pop. 82), but reliably block access to foreign intelligence services, industrial spies, stalkers, and common criminals. Suggesting that it can is technologically naive.
2) On the other hand, the issue raised by the AG expressly concerns only reasonable searches pursuant to a judicial warrant based on probable cause. Almost by definition, those can’t violate the 4th Amendment because that is exactly what the 4th Amendment requires. Whatever horrible constitutional violations the FBI or NSA may have committed in other contexts, this is a separate issue. If Apple had the means to comply with a proper warrant, it would not be breaking or even bending the 4th Amendment by obeying the court’s order, and the government would not be breaking or bending the Constitution by following the procedures that the Constitution itself provides. Suggesting that it would is demagoguery.
3) Pointing out that law enforcement had no access to smart phone data prior to 2007 is true, but irrelevant. Criminals had no access to iPhones, either. They had to keep their address books, call logs, correspondence, and other personal data on media that law enforcement could easily read when it obtained them through a legal search or seizure. These days, no crook in his right mind keeps incriminating data on paper or unencrypted electronic storage. That has heavily shifted the balance in their favor, because it makes most searches for information (as distinct from physical evidence)—be they ever so compliant with the 4th Amendment—useless. If you don’t like legal searches, take it up with the Founding Fathers who wrote the Bill of Rights.
4) As someone who doesn’t have a child who could be kidnapped or molested, I suppose I could make a joke out of parents’ worries about that, but it wouldn’t be very nice. The inescapable fact is that providing suspected criminals with the means to bar any legal access to their data makes it easier for them to commit crimes and evade prosecution. That is not a risk that the Founding Fathers found acceptable, so they allowed legal searches. Barring illegal access also makes life easier for criminals, but the Constitution regards that as a regrettable but necessary cost for personal privacy. They—and you—might consider it an acceptable tradeoff to allow twenty guilty criminals to be acquitted rather than one innocent man convicted, or to let twenty children be raped rather than one rapist’s rights be violated, but I don’t think the drafters of the 4th Amendment found that something to celebrate.
You make some very valid points, however after the abuses of our privacy by the US government, I think it will be a long time before a middle ground can be reached. And be aware, it has been a very very long time since anyone felt that the government could be trusted.
“Comey” How is that pronounced? “Commie” perchance?
Hasn’t Blacberry been encrypted all along? Did’t Apple lose DOD contracts because thier phones weren’t encryted and Samedung provided such? Exchnage Holder for Sgt Tamarissio still suffering in a Mexican prison becsue US DOJ or Sec State won’t help.
Hate to bring facts, but Android has offered device encryption since Android 3.0. That’s since 2011. All the new Android (Android L) will do is have this option enabled by default. Source: wikipedia/life