Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Encryption

Obama and the Justice Dept. May Be Losing the P.R. Battle over Encryption, but Watch the Larger War

Nobody believes it's 'just one phone.'

Scott Shackford | 3.14.2016 12:25 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Large image on homepages | Mike Beauchamp / photo on flickr
(Mike Beauchamp / photo on flickr)
iPhone
Credit: Mike Beauchamp / photo on flickr

The government fight to access your private digital data has another front brewing. The Department of Justice wants to be able to listen in on conversations on WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging and phone service owned by Facebook.

Everybody who knows anything about encryption has warned that it is not just about allowing government access to "a single iPhone" possessed by San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook. The Department of Justice and state-level prosecutors want to force Apple to help them access to dozens, even hundreds of encrypted phones.

In the WhatsApp case, terrorism is not involved. There is a criminal investigation, and a judge has approved a wiretap on somebody's WhatsApp account. The problem, according to The New York Times, is that the program is encrypted on both ends. The DOJ cannot access the content of WhatsApp conversations, even with a wiretap, and neither can Facebook. The path forward for the DOJ is currently unclear, but obviously if the FBI is successful in forcing Apple to help them break through an IPhone's security, we'll see a push here to force WhatsApp to violate its own security for the government's behalf.

It's much more clear, though, that the public relations fight by President Barack Obama and the DOJ is not going the way they hoped it would.  Obama may have shown up to take a stand against encryption at South by Southwest, but The New York Times noted over the weekend that the administration may have misjudged how the public would respond. Polls show a country heavily divided, almost equally split depending on how the question was asked. In some questions a plurality said Apple shouldn't help the feds unlock a phone. Perhaps Obama warning that encryption would result in everybody having "a Swiss bank account in their pocket" had the opposite effect. Who wouldn't want a Swiss bank account in his or her pocket?

In the policy publicity wars, one of the bigger "gets" would be a segment from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight. Oliver has managed to make a viral hit out of his HBO show by repackaging talking points as sarcastic, in-depth segments (not a criticism; the show does it remarkably well). Oliver's show weighed in Sunday night, and let's just say White House employees and attorneys at the DOJ will not be sharing the segment on social media:

For those who are following the encryption fight there's not much to learn from Oliver's segment (though I did not realize there were more than 800 different independent encryption programs), but that's not really the point. The segment isn't for people who are following closely. Oliver's power is in repackaging talking points in an engaging fashion that people who are not reading tech sites and magazines will sit through. And in this case, he clearly chose the talking points of the tech industry and privacy experts.

But will it matter in the end? This week we may see the proposed text of legislation in the works by the Senate Intelligence Committee to try to force tech companies to compromise their encryption to assist in law enforcement investigations. Even if Apple is successful in fighting back a judge's order to help the FBI break an iPhone's security, this proposed legislation could potentially be a significant threat to all our private data. For those who have doubts about the dangers of cooperation, remember that iCloud hack from 2014 where celebrities had their nude photos stolen and distributed online? The hackers used a software tool that had been designed only for police and government authorities to crack security on iPhones.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: D.C. Police Raided Hundreds of Homes Based on Little to No Evidence

Scott Shackford is a policy research editor at Reason Foundation.

EncryptionCybersecurityPrivacyAppleDepartment of JusticeSan Bernardino Shooting
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (85)

Latest

Government Argues It's Too Much To Ask the FBI To Check the Address Before Blowing Up a Home

Billy Binion | 5.9.2025 5:01 PM

The U.K. Trade Deal Screws American Consumers

Eric Boehm | 5.9.2025 4:05 PM

A New Survey Suggests Illicit Opioid Use Is Much More Common Than the Government's Numbers Indicate

Jacob Sullum | 5.9.2025 3:50 PM

Judge Orders Tufts Grad Student Rumeysa Ozturk Be Released on Bail From Immigration Detention

C.J. Ciaramella | 5.9.2025 3:17 PM

Georgia Man Who Spent 6 Weeks in Jail on a Kidnapping Charge Says He Was Helping a Falling Child

Autumn Billings | 5.9.2025 2:05 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!