California Phone Decryption Bill Defeated

[HardOCP News]

The bill in California that sought to penalize companies for making smartphones that can't be decrypted, even with a court order, has been defeated. One down, how many more to go?

A national debate over smartphone encryption arrived in Sacramento on Tuesday as legislators defeated a bill penalizing companies that don’t work with courts to break into phones, siding with technology industry representatives who called the bill a dangerous affront to privacy. The bill did not receive a vote, with members of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection worrying the measure would undermine data security and impose a logistically untenable requirement on California companies.

 

[Monkey God]

Every time a news story about any random subject reaches the national level of awareness, California feels the need to pass a law - no matter how stupid.

 

[nutzo]

Don't worry, they will keep bringing back the bill until it passes. The big government types out here never give up.

 

[Trepidati0n]

Don't worry, they will keep bringing back the bill until it passes. The big government types out here never give up because they have an infinite revenue stream via your tax dollars to get their way.

FTFY

 

[Miikun]

Don't worry, they will keep bringing back the bill until it passes. The big government types out here never give up.

That's so true, but the low blow happens when they pork barrel it into a no-brainer bill at the last moment so people aren't even aware of it. News agencies will announce "California finally pays fire fighters who have been unpaid due budgeting issues for 6 months" and near the bottom in the fine print "All your identity belong to us".

 

[pxc]

The bill did not receive a vote, with members of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection worrying the measure would undermine data security and impose a logistically untenable requirement on California companies.

In an earlier thread posted here, I predicted it would go nowhere. It had virtually no support and had no chance of passing. Since no one clicked and read the article, I posted the relevant excerpt above.

tl;dr it never got out of committee.

Unfortunately, there is a larger threat at the national level: Proposed Senate bill would require tech companies to break encryption

WASHINGTON — A draft bill that would force tech companies to hack encrypted devices in response to a court order was already drawing heat from Silicon Valley on Friday as it began circulating on Capitol Hill.

The legislation from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chair Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would effectively derail the growing use of "end-to-end" encryption, which is designed to be so strong that only users have the ability to get into their smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices.

 

[kbrickley]

In an earlier thread posted here, I predicted it would go nowhere. It had virtually no support and had no chance of passing. Since no one clicked and read the article, I posted the relevant excerpt above.

tl;dr it never got out of committee.

Unfortunately, there is a larger threat at the national level: Proposed Senate bill would require tech companies to break encryption

Whenever the democrats and republicans both agree on something you know you are pretty screwed. This obsession with getting rid of encryption certainly doesn't make us any safer in the long run as true terrorists always have access to tools outside the scope of this bill. In usual fashion we get to pay the price because some criminal used an iPhone in his criminal endeavor.

 

[the-one1]

When they outlaw encryption, only criminals will use encryption.