U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder s comments this week about the data encryption indicate the government is not going to let this issue go.
Holder said Tuesday that it is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy, as reported.
At issue is the new data encryption on Apple iPhones and upcoming Google s Android smartphones.
As Julia Love and Robert Salonga wrote in the , Apple has encrypted data on its new iOS 8 software, locking itself out of having access to user data and thus making it impossible for the company to respond to government warrants seeking the data.
Law enforcement officials have expressed concerns. Last week, James Comey, the FBI director, said the FBI was talking to the companies to understand the technology and that he worried about the tech firms marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.
Law enforcement s warrants may have access to data that is backed up on cloud-based services but the issue is the data that lives on phones.
It is unclear what the government will do next. Beyond lobbying the companies, Bloomberg says there is little officials can do without congressional legislation.
Above: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
