The White House has expressed that they will not support legislation that would give federal judges authority to order technology companies such as Apple to hack encrypted information.
Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, heads of the Intelligence Committee, are set to introduce a draft legislation this week as a response to growing concerns of criminals taking advantage of encrypted devices to secure their identities and agendas from authorities.
According to Reuters, the bill grants federal judges broader authority in issuing orders for tech companies to assist the government by cracking encrypted data. It does not, however, impose a standard of implementation especially with respect to what tech companies can or cannot do. Nor does it specify under which particular circumstances tech companies can render assistance and the penalties they would face for noncompliance.
The White House has declined to publicly support the measure. The Hill noted that this stance is consistent with the White House plan to implement a long-term policy vision on encryption. Privacy advocates hope that Obama will include a strong provision that will block any legislation that would attempt to weaken decryption.
The battle over encryption has heated up since the FBI's request to have Apple hack into the phone of the one of the shooters of the San Bernardino incident. After a much-heated debate, the Justice Department dropped its case against Apple, saying it has found a way to unlock the shooter's iPhone.
The Register wrote that the encryption bill will find little support in Congress with backing from the White House, especially since both Democrats and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party aren't sold out on the idea.
Specifically, Democrat senator Ron Wyden has vowed to block any attempt to undermine encryption protections in tech devices.
Some intelligence officials also worry that allowing law enforcement agencies to break encryption barriers would create an even bigger problem and violating constitutionally-protected laws.
Tech companies, on their end, are boosting their efforts to strengthen security measures on their devices and applications. For one, WhatsApp announced that its new encryption measure keeps the company from retrieving customer messages even if it was compelled by a court order.
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