On April 29, 2015, Apps Alliance President Jon Potter testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Information Technology. Recently, law enforcement agencies have been pushing hard for unfettered access to encrypted products and services—a major issue for developers and businesses across the globe.
“Developers, industry partners, and consumers will face tremendous obstacles if government forces apps to try to both protect privacy and provide privacy-breaching back doors to the government,” Potter told the Committee. “Any backdoor is a vulnerability that hackers and cyberthieves will exploit, and there is no evidence that split-key encryption or any type of shared-key system will be effective.”
Potter concluded by urging Congress to protect consumer data and ensure a healthy international marketplace for app development.
Find more information on the hearing here:
Lawmakers skeptical about encryption override (FWC: The Business of Federal Technology)
Lawmakers criticize FBI’s request to mandate encryption back doors (PCWorld)
Law Banning Default Encryption Unlikely (BankInfoSecurity)
Lawmakers Challenge FBI On Surveillance Backdoors, Encryption (Buzzfeed)
Geoff Lane
Policy and Government Relations Manager
