Apple Opens Fire In Encryption Battle

So far, the debate over encryption has been vague and broadly drawn. On one side, Silicon Valley, arguing that weakening encryption puts normal people's privacy and security at risk (and threatens their relationships with customers). On the other, the security services, police and governments, arguing (sometimes without much firm proof) that encryption helps terrorists and makes the loss of life more likely.

The problem has been so far that much of this talk has been hypothetical. Governments haven't actually detailed how they would like to see encryption changed to help them. So technology companies' responses have been equally hazy. This is why Apple's intervention is important. It is a specific response to a specific piece of legislation. Granted, that legislation - the Government's Investigatory Powers Bill or so-called "Snoopers' Charter" - is still vague.

The Government has publicly said that it doesn't want to weaken encryption - the Home Secretary even repeated this when she introduced the bill in Parliament. But the bill could force companies to hand over data 'in the clear' - a pre-existing power which has, as far as we know, never been demanded and certainly never tested in court.

Apple gives that notion both barrels writing that, "this bill will put law abiding citizens at risk, not the criminals, hackers and terrorists.
"The fact is to comply with the Government's proposal, the personal data of millions of law abiding citizens would be less secure."

That's not too different from the broad-stroke objections we've heard so far. But in the rest of its submission, Apple goes through specific clauses of the bill, explaining why it objects to them and, crucially, suggesting how they could be improved.

This is a new stage of the debate. So much depends on the nitty-gritty of how laws are written. After much high-minded rhetoric from both sides, Apple is actually getting stuck in.
Sky: http://bit.ly/1Z1U2jg