Obama not to seek access to encrypted user data, FBI irked

CUPERTINO (California): The Obama administration has backed down in its bitter dispute with Silicon Valley over the encryption of data on iPhones and other digital devices, concluding that it is not possibleto giveAmerican law enforcement and intelligence agencies access to that information without creating an opening that China, Russia, cybercriminals and terrorists could alsoexploit. 

With its decision, which angered the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, the administration essentially agreed with Apple, Google, Microsoft and a group of the nation's top cryptographers and computer scientists that millions of Americans would be vulnerable to hacking if technology firms and smartphone manufacturers were required to provide the government with "back doors," or access to their source code and encryption keys. 

That would enable the government to see messages, photographs and other data now routinely encrypted on smartphones. Current technology puts the keys for access to the information in the hands of the individual user, not the companies. 

The first indication of the retreat came on Thursday, when the FBI director James B Comey told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the administration would not seek legislation to compel the companies to create such a portal.But the decision, made at the White House a week ago, goes considerably beyond that. 

While the administration said it would continue to try to persuade companies like Apple and Google to assist in criminal and national security investigations, it determined that the government should not force them to breach the security of their products. 

In essence, investigators will have to hope they find other ways to get what they need, in terms of encrypted data.