Motherboard: You’ll have to get through Congress first

FBI Director James Comey is hopping mad that Apple and Google are starting to encrypt their phones by default, and wants to force them to build backdoors for spying. Too bad there's a little thing called democracy. Article by Jason Koebler for Motherboard The FBI's director wants Congress to force force Apple and Google to do away with default smartphone encryption. Congress, however, doesn’t look to be with him. Last week, FBI director James Comey suggested that encryption "threatens to lead all of us to a very dark place" and suggested that if Apple and Google don't remove default encryption from iOS and Android then "Congress might have to force this on companies."

FBI Director James Comey is hopping mad that Apple and Google are starting to encrypt their phones by default, and wants to force them to build backdoors for spying. Too bad there's a little thing called democracy.

Article by Jason Koebler for Motherboard

The FBI's director wants Congress to force force Apple and Google to do away with default smartphone encryption. Congress, however, doesn’t look to be with him.

Last week, FBI director James Comey suggested that encryption "threatens to lead all of us to a very dark place" and suggested that if Apple and Google don't remove default encryption from iOS and Android then "Congress might have to force this on companies."

But years of National Security Administration surveillance and other privacy oversteps and surveillance creep by the federal government has lawmakers skittish to do anything that'll be seen as expanding the surveillance state, even if Congress still isn't ready to roll back the laws it already has on the books.

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