{"id":27412,"date":"2019-12-12T01:22:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T01:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=27412"},"modified":"2019-12-12T01:22:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T01:22:03","slug":"encryption-regulation-us-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/encryption-regulation-us-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Encryption regulation dispute between tech giants and US Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

US senators on Tuesday delivered a warning to tech companies to provide security operatives with access to encryption on devices and messages or will be prosecuted.<\/strong>
\nUS (United States) Republican and Democratic senators where in rare agreement as they grilled Apple and Facebook executives over their encryption practices and threatened to regulate the technology unless the companies make encrypted user data accessible to law enforcement.
\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee, which was chaired by Senator Lindsey Graham<\/a>, told the tech companies to provide all necessary information to law enforcement.<\/strong>
\nSenator Dick Durbin, also re-emphasized Graham\u2019s warning, stating that the encryption debate is about whether to allow companies to be beyond the reach of the law.
\nThe Judiciary<\/a> Committee claims the increase rate of child abuse, terrorism, and mass shooting cases in the country is a result of encryption which has blocked access to crucial evidence and obstructed investigations.
\nLaw enforcement officials further argued that encryption keeps them from accessing criminals\u2019 devices, even under a court order or sometimes after death.<\/strong> They noted that encryption prevents them from detecting internet-based crimes.
\nTech<\/a> companies, ascertain that their focus remains to protect user privacy, and they say that creating a key or backdoor into the devices or messages makes the system vulnerable to malicious actors.
\nCompany representatives Jay Sullivan (Facebook) and Erik Neuenschwander (Apple) at the hearing were joined by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Matt Tait, a cybersecurity fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss encryption and lawful access.<\/strong>
\nTait testified that while technology companies can develop an improved encryption system, they don\u2019t have the incentives.
\nIn their testimony, Sullivan traded barbs with Neuenschwander, and both suggested to lawmakers to focus their scrutiny on the other company\u2019s business.
\nNotably, a bill to ban warrant-proof encryption was previously launched in early 2016 but failed to be passed by the Senate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Encryption advocates react<\/h2>\n

Jay Sullivan, a Facebook privacy executive, said during the hearing that the social giant removes over 250,000 encrypted accounts each month for child abuse.
\nAdvocates are reacting to the Senate declaration in hundreds. Many of these advocates stated that focusing on criminals fails to acknowledge the danger that billions of non-criminals who use encrypted systems would face without secure encryption.
\nAmie Stepanovich, executive director of Silicon Flatirons, an innovation center at the University of Colorado, disagrees with this new initiative.<\/p>\n

\n

Whitehouse asks if Apple is willing to accept liability if someone dies because of encryption.<\/p>\n

Who accepts liability if (when) someone dies because of inadequate\/lack of encryption?<\/p>\n

— Amie Stepanovich (@astepanovich) December 10, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n