Related Articles
The Investigatory Powers Bill which forces tech companies to create a backdoor to any device they create is set to be in motion today. The bill is set to force tech companies and internet service providers to implement backdoor access on any smartphone and device that they sell to give government agencies access to data that is needed on demand.
Section 189 of the bill states that the “maintenance of technical capability, this would grant law enforcing agencies the power to issue a secret order that would be able to force any company to remove the electronic protection they put…to any communications or data and to provide facilities or services of a specified description. Companies however cannot reveal if there has been access by backdoor or not as the bill does not allow it.
Since telecommunications companies are so broad, the list includes a lot of enterprises including Apple and Samsung. Thi means that these two manufacturers have to build a secret door for the agencies and co into their mobile phone platforms, tablets and computers also inclusive which would allow officials access. The measures however will be paid for by the companies if the bill is to be ratified in Parliament.
The bill comes in the wake of the Apple vs FBI case dubbed the FBIOS case in which the FBI and the Department of Justice want Apple to create a backdoor for them to be able to access an iPhone that is in the FBI’s hands. The phone belonged to terrorist Sayed Farook who shot and killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California last December.
Apple however, with the support of other technological giants insists that this action that the FBI wants would set a dangerous precedent and they fear if it might fall in the wrong hands. The case has been wrangling in court since January with the FBI winning the first one before Apple challenged the verdict. The story has also started a debate about privacy and the role tech companies are playing in keeping with security.
The senior director at Echoworx, Jacob Ginsberg, said that the IP bill seemed to not like the bill. He said, “Technology providers across the world will agree that this creates a dangerous precedent. The government is proposing to watch citizens as if they were criminals.”
He explained that the government were not entitled to powers that would help them intrude on people’s privacy. His remarks seem to be in line with those of most security experts who like Apple also suggest and think that once a backdoor is opened the prospect of closing it would be a hard process.
In other news related, the Labour party is in disagreement with the new spy law that the Home Secretary is trying to enforce. Reports in newspapers said that the shadow home secretary was not going to give the bill a blank cheque in the commons room. Mr Burnham suggested that there were some improvements that had to be done in order to ratify the bill.
