Apple and Google are both touting new security features inside iOS 8 and Android L. The former makes it much harder for authorities to gain access to parts of your phone, like iMessage and Mail, while the latter will start to ship with encryption enabled out-of-the-box later this fall. The FBI doesn’t like this added security one bit and thinks there’s definitely some national concerns that need to be addressed.
FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that he was “very concerned” about new steps Silicon Valley tech giants were taking to strengthen privacy protections on mobile devices. “I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I also believe that no one in this country is beyond the law,” Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington. “What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.” Apple said last week that it would no longer be technically feasible to unlock encrypted iPhones and iPads for law enforcement because the devices would no longer allow user passcodes to be bypassed. The move comes as tech companies struggle to manage public concerns in the aftermath of last year’s leak of classified National Security Agency documents about government access to private user data.
