Europol’s Assistant Director Troels Oerting

Law enforcement officials on both sides of the pond have kicked up a stink about Apple and Google’s moves to finally encrypt user data on their smartphones. While most consumers think encryption for iPhones and Androids is long overdue (consider that Nokia’s Symbian platform had it way back in 2008), government spooks are less than keen on the idea.

Last Thursday, Europol’s assistant director Troels Oerting criticized the companies, saying “there seems to be a confusion between anonymity and privacy”, and claiming that encryption would make it impossible for law enforcement agencies to collect evidence on criminals. His comments were tame in comparison to those of US attorney general Eric Holder, who warned that child abusers could escape detection if authorities are unable to snoop on their phones.

“The average pedophile at this point is probably thinking, I’ve got to get an Apple phone,” added Chicago’s chief of police John Escalante. Meanwhile Cathy Lanier, chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, stoked the fire even more, saying that smartphone communication is “going to be the preferred method of the paedophile and the criminal.”

Law enforcement officials have launched a PR offensive to try to get Apple and Google to back down, but the question is why they are doing it now. Firms like Silent Circle, Inc. have been offering such protections for ages, and it’s long been possible to mask our web browsing with tools like Tor.

What’s different is that suddenly these encryption tools are now available to the masses by default as part of Apple’s and Google’s efforts to address customer concerns about privacy in the post-Edward Snowden era. There’s also evidence to suggest that tech firms are losing customers due to privacy concerns. Foreign customers are uneasy about leaving their data in the hands of US-based firms, where law enforcement agencies can seemingly browse through it at their leisure. Tech firms are beginning to resist government intrusion. Microsoft Corp. is embroiled in a bitter court battle to stop US investigators from accessing its Dublin-based data centers.

Also curious is that encryption by itself doesn’t stop law enforcement officials from accessing data. As several security experts have pointed out, agents can obtain a warrant to legally look at information, whether encrypted or not.

The only real difference is due process – law enforcement can’t spy on people without having a good reason to do so, and. Perhaps that’s why some of them are so upset.

photo credit: Yuri Yu. Samoilov via photopin cc