White House declines to support encryption legislation - sources
Source: Reuters
Technology | Wed Apr 6, 2016 7:01pm EDT
Exclusive: White House declines to support encryption legislation - sources
WASHINGTON | BY MARK HOSENBALL AND DUSTIN VOLZ
The White House is declining to offer public support for draft legislation that would empower judges to require technology companies such as Apple Inc to help law enforcement crack encrypted data, sources familiar with the discussions said.
The decision all but assures that the years-long political impasse over encryption will continue even in the wake of the high-profile effort by the Department of Justice to force Apple to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last December's shootings in San Bernardino, California.
President Obama suggested in remarks last month that he had come around to the view that law enforcement agencies needed to have a way to gain access to encrypted information on smartphones.
But the administration remains deeply divided on the issue, the sources said.
The draft legislation from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican chair and top Democrat respectively of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is expected to be introduced as soon as this week.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-legislation-idUSKCN0X32M4