In the News

A bipartisan effort is underway in the House to use the Defense appropriations bill to protect the use of encryption in electronic devices.

Eighteen House lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, are backing an amendment to the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2017 spending measure that would prohibit any agent of the National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency from requiring or requesting a company or person to “alter its product or service” to assist the federal government’s intelligence operations.

The amendment, which is one of 75 slated for consideration on the House floor, would bar those agencies from mandating a company weaken or break its encryption to allow investigators to retrieve valuable communications. The U.S. government also wouldn’t be able to gather information on Americans using a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act.

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