Remember the Investigatory Powers bill that the U.K. government plans on passing to ban end-to-end encryption? The bill was called as “stupid” by Wikipedia co-founder and he even went on to say that Apple should stop selling the iPhone in the country if it is passed.
Apple has now publicly spoken out against the proposed Investigatory Powers bill and has expressed its concerns over it. The company says that it would be wrong to weaken the security for millions of consumers in favor of few people with malicious intentions. Instead, Apple says that in the current environment, companies should be allowed to implement very strong encryption policies to protect their customers.
“We believe it would be wrong to weaken security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding customers so that it will also be weaker for the very few who pose a threat,” Apple said. “In this rapidly evolving cyber-threat environment, companies should remain free to implement strong encryption to protect customers”
Apple further says that creating backdoors will lead to its products and services like iMessage being vulnerable and accessible to not just by government bodies but hackers and criminals as well. In its letter, the company has requested the government to make changes to the proposed legislation before it is passed.
Apple also expressed concerns over another section of the bill that essentially makes it legal for government agencies to hack into computers worldwide. The bill also states that tech companies should help such government agencies if the need so arises. Apple says that such bills would place its relationship with consumers in a very difficult position and will also overlap with foreign and domestic laws.
Besides Apple, other tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter are also planning on submitting letters and evidence to the committee against this proposed bill.
[Via The Guardian]
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