Congress to FBI Director Comey on Smartphone Encryption: Stand Down

Representatives say such a mandate stands "zero chance" of passing

The U.S. Congress doesn't always get it right -- some would even argue it seldom gets it right these days. But occasionally the interests of special interest donors align fortunately with the public interest and Congress does something praiseworthy.

I. The Right to Encrypt

This is the case with the recent decision to rebuff requests fromThe U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) director, James Brien Comey, Jr., who wanted Congress to pass a law forcing American smartphone makers to decrypt citizens' devices at the request of federal law enforcement.

The request was bizarre in the first place, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) points out, as theCommunications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994 states (47 U.S. Code 1002):

A telecommunications carrier shall not be responsible for decrypting, or ensuring the governments ability to decrypt, any communication encrypted by a subscriber or customer, unless the encryption was provided by the carrier and the carrier possesses the information necessary to decrypt the communication.

But that didn't stop Director Comey from attempting to bend logic -- and the law. His comments come after Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple, Inc. (AAPL), the world's top two smartphone platform companies, began advertising encryption features that keep Americans' data private and secure.

II. On "Back Doors" and "Front Doors"

In a recent interview, Director Comey said that people shouldn't trust the FBI given its history of misbehavior and illegal investigations. But then he went on to daftly suggest that the public entrust the behavior with new investigation authority -- including regulating decryption -- with nary a promise of transparency in exchange.

And just months after the U.S. Supreme Court beat back warrantless smartphone searches, Director Comey brazenly stepped up his rhetoric, last week calling on Congress to pass a bill to revamp CALEA, scrapping its encryption protections.

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Congress to FBI Director Comey on Smartphone Encryption: Stand Down