Encryption is a big deal. Just look at California and New York, both states working on making it an even bigger conversation than it already is with proposed bills to block it in mobile devices. And now AT&T’s CEO apparently just wants a decision made already.
Randall Stephenson is the Chief Executive of the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States, AT&T, and he’s spoken out about encryption with The Wall Street Journal, saying, essentially, that Congress needs to go ahead and make a decision on the security step, and leave the tech companies, like Apple, out of the conversation altogether.
“I don’t think it is Silicon Valley’s decision to make about whether encryption is the right thing to do. I understand Tim Cook’s decision, but I don’t think it’s his decision to make.”
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has been vocal about encryption and the company’s place as a steward of its availability to its customers. Apple wants its devices secure, so much so that even the company that created the hardware and software can’t access it once it’s locked behind a password or fingerprint, while entities within the federal government don’t see it in the same light. Stephenson, for his part, believes that the decision should be made by the American people and Congress, and not by the companies releasing encrypted devices:
“I personally think that this is an issue that should be decided by the American people and Congress, not by companies.”
Encryption is a big deal, especially to Apple, which has made the safe-keeping efforts one of its major bullet points recently. As such, the company’s CEO has made it obvious that he wants encryption to stay, and to get better, in the years ahead. On the other side of the conversation, officials believe that encryption is keeping keeping less safe, and that backdoors need to be implemented to have access to information when they need it.
This is a conversation that won’t go away, probably even if/when Congress makes a decision.
[via The Wall Street Journal]
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