Sen. Grassley Asks DOJ To Get Back To Pushing James Comey's Mandatory Encryption Backdoors Plan

Privacy

from the damn-this-administration's-showy-shrugs-over-encryption! dept

It’s hard to figure out just where Sen. Charles Grassley stands in terms of his assessment of the FBI’s trustworthiness. Grassley demanded the FBI answer questions on its presumably warrantless use of Stingray devices. He also called it out for refusing to update Congress on the status of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

But now that the debate over encryption and “going dark” seems to have come to a halt, Grassley is now encouraging the DOJ to take up FBI Director James Comey’s lead and find a legislative “solution” to the supposed encryption problem.

FBI Director James Comey appears to have conceded defeat when it comes to legislation to require communications companies to make encrypted communications available to law enforcement on the basis of a search warrant. But Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley is not having it.

“I believe that the administration should use every lawful tool at its disposal and vigorously investigate each and every potential solution to this serious problem,” wrote Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in an Oct. 8 letter to Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

The letter points to some recent press coverage that suggests the administration has walked away from seeking mandatory backdoors to the encryption provided by Apple and Google. Apparently, a few “technically feasible solutions” have been put together by a “working group” but have not been discussed or otherwise made public. Grassley wants to know what these are and why the DOJ isn’t pursuing these options.

I believe that the Administration should use every lawful tool at its disposal and vigorously investigate each and every potential solution to this serious problem, as your testimony before the Committee implied it would.

Grassley then goes on to cite efforts being made by the UK and France, as if the broad wording and overreach of their anti-terrorism proposals were something to be admired and emulated.

Moreover, countries like Great Britain and France are much further along in their national dialogues on how best to balance privacy and public safety with regard to and are currently contemplating specific legislative proposals to address the threat posed by widespread inviolable encryption.

Yes, but the “national dialogue” these countries are engaging in only includes pro-surveillance administrations and the intelligence agencies that stand to benefit from expanded powers and the increased budgets that come with them. The other stakeholders — the citizens of these countries — have been cut out of the discussion. Even in Comey’s own words, the “threat” posed seems manageable (“dozens“) and other evidence out there suggests encryption is rarely a problem for law enforcement or intelligence agencies, who have other ways of obtaining data and communications that do not require attacking encryption head-on.

Grassley appears to believe a legislative solution is the best approach. While this administration has demurred, another administration is on its way in little more than a year — one that could take advantage of Congressional majorities to push through mandated encryption backdoors.

Filed Under: backdoors, chuck grassley, doj, encryption, fbi, going dark, james comey