FBI says iPhone encryption will help kidnappers

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Trevor Timm wrote for The Guardian about the misleading information FBI is disseminating regarding phone encryption.

FBI director James Comey:

I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I also believe that no one in this country is beyond the law. … What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.

Encrypting your files doesn’t put you beyond the law. Are you beyond the law if you locked your houses to keep out intruders and police?

Comey:

I get that the post-Snowden world has started an understandable pendulum swing. … What I’m worried about is, this is an indication to us as a country and as a people that, boy, maybe that pendulum swung too far.

Timm makes a very good point:

This might be a good time to point out that Congress has not changed surveillance law at all in the the nearly 16 months since Edward Snowden’s disclosures began, mostly because of the vociferous opposition from intelligence agencies and cops. The pendulum is still permanently lodged squarely on law enforcement’s side.

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