Lawmakers in California has introduced a bill that targets smartphone encryption.
This particular bill introduced by California Assembly member Jim Cooper, would “require a smartphone that is manufactured on or after January 1, 2017, and sold in California, to be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider”. According to Cooper, the reasoning behind this bill is that it would assist Californian authorities in the fight against human trafficking.
Assembly Bill 1861 is similar to a New York Bill that was introduced earlier this month that aims to weaken smartphone encryption as well. Cooper has since clarified with Ars Technica that this bill would not allow California law enforcement to behave like the National Security Agency or the CIA as they will still have to acquire a warrant in order to go through the data. He noted that “99 percent” of Californians would never have their phones be implicated in a law enforcement operation, meaning that they would not have to worry about any invasion of privacy from the Californian government’s side.
Should the bill be passed, it would effectively mean that all iOS products and smart devices would be considered illegal until the tech companies responsible implement a back-door for all of the affected devices.
Source : Ars Technica, The Next Web