ACLU Comment on FBI Director Comey’s Encryption Speech

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: 202-417-7547, dcmedia@aclu.orgWASHINGTON – FBI Director James Comey gave a speech today suggesting that the growing use of encryption technologies on mobile devices could hinder law enforcement.Laura W. Murphy, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union, had this comment:“Director Comey is wrong in asserting that law enforcement cannot do its job while respecting Americans’ privacy rights. In fact, federal law explicitly protects the right of companies to add encryption with no backdoors. Whether the FBI calls it a front door or a backdoor, any effort by the FBI to weaken encryption leaves our highly personal information and our business information vulnerable to hacking by foreign governments and criminals. We applaud tech leaders like Apple and Google that are unwilling to weaken security for everyone to allow the government yet another tool in its already vast surveillance arsenal. We hope that others in the tech industry follow their lead and realize that customers put a high value on privacy, security and free speech.”