The Obama administration, which has staffed up on savvy pro-privacy technologists, even as its law enforcement arm has called for a “magic pony” that would let Internet users attain technological security without compromising the ability to wiretap them, has promised to release a statement indicating whether it will make policy based on science or fear.
Update: Kevin Bankston clarifies:
@ericgeller @doctorow Hey guys, just to clarify: White House said they were *hoping* to have crypto response by holiday, no promises
— Kevin Bankston (@KevinBankston) December 11, 2015
At that meeting, White House and Department of Homeland Security officials told representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, Access, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Human Rights Watch, and New America’s Open Technology Institute that they were eyeing a holiday deadline for their formal response, according to Kevin Bankston, OTI’s director, who helped organize the meeting.
A senior administration official confirmed that an encryption response was forthcoming but did not comment on the deadline. “The response we posted was an interim one,” the official said of the brief reply to the petition, “and we will have a more fulsome response soon.”
Obama to clarify his stance on encryption by the holidays
[Eric Geller and William Turton/Daily Dot]
(via /.)
(Image: Asymmetric cryptography, Odder, CC-BY-SA)
