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6. EFF: "Worried about Apple? California Has a Bill That Would Disable Encryption on All Phones"

Last edited Sun Mar 13, 2016, 05:21 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/03/worried-about-apple-california-has-bill-would-disable-encryption-all-phones

March 9, 2016 | By Andrew Crocker
Worried about Apple? California Has a Bill That Would Disable Encryption on All Phones

Smartphone users in California take notice: a new CA State Assembly bill would ban default encryption features on all smartphones. Assembly Bill 1681, introduced in January by Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D), would require any smartphone sold in California “to be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider.” This is perhaps even more drastic than the legal precedent at stake in Apple’s ongoing showdown with the Justice Department, in which the government is trying to force a private company to write code undermining key security features in specific cases.

Both Apple and Google currently encrypt smartphones running their iOS and Android operating systems by default. A.B. 1681 would undo this default, penalizing manufacturers and providers of operating systems $2,500 per device that cannot be decrypted at the time of sale.

Similar proposals have been made by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who published a white paper [pdf] in November 2015 arguing that law enforcement needs to access the contents of smartphones to solve a range of crimes. A nearly identical bill is also pending in the New York State Assembly.

EFF opposes A.B. 1681 and all other state proposals to regulate smartphone encryption because they are terrible policy. If passed, A.B. 1681 would leave law-abiding Californians at risk for identity theft, data breach, stalking, and other invasions of privacy, with little benefit to law enforcement. It would be both ineffective and impossible to enforce. And, if that weren’t enough, it suffers from serious constitutional infirmities.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Congress, Representative Ted Lieu has introduced H.R. 4528, the ENCRYPT Act, which would definitively preempt state bills like A.B. 1681. EFF agrees this is the right approach to state legislation in this area, although we’d like H.R. 4528 to go further and also prevent Congress and the rest of the federal government from undermining encryption.

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http://asmdc.org/members/a09/news-room/press-releases/cooper-appointed-to-key-leadership-position

Cooper Appointed to Key Leadership Position
Created: Thursday, 10 March 2016 11:51

SACRAMENTO – Today, Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) was appointed by Speaker Anthony Rendon to serve as Assistant Majority Floor Leader as part of the Speaker’s new leadership team.

“I want to thank Speaker Rendon for appointing me to his leadership team,” said Cooper “I am honored to be chosen to serve as Assistant Majority Floor Leader during a new era in the State Assembly. I look forward to continuing to work with Speaker Rendon and our members to make California a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Assemblymember Cooper represents the Cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Galt, and Lodi.