The U.S. Department of Justice is asking Apple to re-engineer the iPhone operating system so it is more vulnerable to a brute-force attack, citing the need to fight terrorism. This dangerous request runs contrary to international human rights law and provides political cover for oppressive regimes to seek the same authority.…
17 February 2016
Last week, Obama Administration officials revealed that they will not force technology companies to weaken encryption to give government officials special access to users’ data. However, this is only a partial win for advocates of smart digital security policy. As our U.S. policy manager Amie Stepanovich explains in a post at Just Security, ambiguity remains with regard to the administration’s stand on encryption.…
14 October 2015
Earlier this week, two foreign journalists for Vice working in southeastern Turkey were arrested, raising concerns about the journalists’ safety and security. In a dark reminder of the “Crypto Wars” of the 1990s, a Turkish official stated yesterday that the main reason that these journalists were detained is that they use encryption. This morning, the news surfaced that the journalists have been released and are free to leave the country, although the charges against them have not been dropped. A local translator who had been working with them remains in custody.
This incident raises serious issues for digital rights and digital security, and could cause a powerful chilling effect for freedom of expression — not just in Turkey, but in other conflict-prone regions around the world.
…3 September 2015
Today, Access kicked off our inaugural Crypto Summit, a multistakeholder conference devoted to emerging questions about cryptography and the future of the internet. These are edited remarks from Access’ Technology Director Jamie Tomasello and U.S. Policy Manager Amie Stepanovich from the event in Washington, DC.…
15 July 2015
Today, senior members of the Obama Administration, including the director of the FBI, visited the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees to discuss encryption policy. FBI Director James Comey, along with officials from the Department of Justice and state law enforcement, requested a “dialogue” with the private sector to enable the government to obtain exceptional access to encrypted data. Yet leading security experts have made clear that such access would undermine the security of technology and the privacy of internet users around the world. …
8 July 2015
Access hails the new report by UN human rights expert David Kaye that defends the use of encryption as necessary for free expression, and that affirms digital security as essential for the broader advancement of human rights.…
28 May 2015
Encryption and anonymity on the internet are necessary for the advancement of human rights, according to a new report from the United Nations. The report from David Kaye, a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, asserts that privacy is a “gateway for freedom of opinion and expression.” …
28 May 2015
The UN Human Rights Council will review the human rights record of the government of Spain on Wednesday as part of its Universal Periodic Review. Access calls on UN member states to recommend that Spain halt the criminalization of encryption, and to protect the rights of all users in the country. …
20 January 2015
Today, a coalition of civil society organizations and companies sent a letter to the Obama Administration asking it to set strong guiding principles for the establishment of encryption standards. …
20 November 2014