Manhattan District Attorney Calls iPhone Encryption 'An Issue of Public Safety'

With iOS 8, Apple rolled out many security and privacy enhancements. One of the biggest security features included encryption of your personal data such as photos, messages, emails, call history and more. On the new operating system, Apple cannot decrypt or extract any of the information on your device, even if it was required to do so.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance sees these new security and privacy features as "an issue of public safety, " and believes Apple should be required to decrypt the information on the phone.

“It’s developed into a sort of high-stakes game,” Vance said. “They’ve eliminated accessibility in order to market the product. Now that means we have to figure out how to solve a problem that we didn’t create.”


“This is an issue of public safety,” Vance said. “The companies made a conscious decision -- which they marketed -- to make these devices inaccessible. Now it’s our job to figure out how we can do our job in that environment.”

Vance said he was "going rouge" by discussing the subject at a conference hosted by the FBI, but he has been in discussions with lawmakers on crafting legislation to require companies to hand over data. FBI director James Comey also has previously stated he was very concerned with the steps Apple and Google are taking to strengthen privacy on mobile devices; however, security experts believe the claims from law enforcement are nonsense.

"There's no evidence that encryption hampers criminal investigations in any serious way. In 2013, encryption foiled the police nine times, up from four in 2012—and the investigations proceeded in some other way," cryptographer Bruce Schneier responded.

Do you agree with law enforcement officials, or think privacy and security are equally important?


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