Tech industry calls on Obama and FBI not to undermine encryption

In a letter addressed to President Obama, the tech industry urges not to undermine encryption. The FBI also received that request. The FBI wants Congressional approval to monitor communications through encrypted chat apps and apps that delete conversations.

The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association, two organizations representing tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, have issued a warning to the FBI and the US government urging that encryption be left untouched, Reuters writes. .

The US government is increasing pressure on tech companies to give government agencies the ability to circumvent encryption, for example through backdoors. “We oppose any policy or measure that undermines encryption as an effective tool,” the companies now told President Barack Obama. The tech industry and the FBI have long been at odds over encryption.

According to the FBI, IS people invite interested parties and susceptible supporters via Twitter and Facebook to chat via secure chat apps. With this, they increasingly communicate encrypted or have conversations that are immediately deleted, the FBI claims. The agency complains to the LA Times that they have no way of obtaining the information and thus are “groping in the dark.” Last week, the FBI urged Congress to allow it to monitor apps, which are supposed to bypass encryption.

More and more software is offering encryption capabilities after the Snowden revelations revealed the extent of the NSA’s wiretapping. The intelligence services are now complaining that they are missing important information for investigations into, among other things, terrorism.

Update 09.00: Approach and order adapted to current events.