Photographers call on camera manufacturers to build in encryption

More than 150 photojournalists and documentarians have joined a call from the Freedom of the Press Foundation to provide cameras with built-in encryption capabilities. According to the authors, they often have to deal with seizures.

The call is addressed to major manufacturers of cameras and video equipment such as Nikon, Sony, Canon, Olympus and Fuji. Among the 150 signatories are fifteen Oscar winners, such as Laura Poitras, maker of the documentary Citizenfour about Snowden.

“Without encryption capabilities, photos and video footage we’ve taken could be examined and analyzed by police, military and customs officials in countries we work and travel to. The consequences could be serious,” the appeal reads. According to them, there is a critical juncture between the capture of images and the first opportunity to get them onto secure devices. Seizures are said to be so common that the Committee to Protect Journalists has called it impracticable to keep track of them.

They point out that more and more products and services are being provided with built-in encryption, such as iOS and Android, WhatsApp and hard drives. “However, images stored on widely used professional cameras are still dangerously vulnerable there,” writes the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Canon once released a security kit with encryption capability for the EOS-1Ds Mark III and the EOS-1D Mark III. However, Elcomsoft managed to circumvent the verification technology and Canon never developed the technique further.