FBI Chief Warns Against Phone Encryption

FBI Director James Comey warned in stark terms against the push by technology companies to encrypt smartphone data and operating systems, arguing that murder cases could be stalled, suspects could walk free and justice could be thwarted by a locked phone or encrypted hard drive. Comey said in a Brookings Institution speech Thursday that moves by tech companies to protect user communications in the name of privacy are certain to impede a wide range of criminal investigations, and he cited cases in which access to cellphone data helped in such investigations. Privacy advocates and technology experts called the concerns exaggerated and little more than recycled arguments against encryption that date back to the early 1990s.