Justice Department takes another run at encryption backdoors with ‘lawful access’

Following in the footsteps of former FBI Director James Comey and other top law enforcement officials, Attorney General William Barr is taking a swing at the growing prevalence of encryption across the digital landscape, with a particular renewed focus on the rising number of communications apps that are offering end-to-end encryption. On Thursday, the Justice Department published an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the social media giant not to proceed with its end-to-end encryption for its messaging services without providing law enforcement court-authorized access to the content of communications.

The letter, signed by the Attorney General, United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel, Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, came on the same day the U.S. and UK governments entered into the world’s first ever CLOUD Act Agreement. The agreement, according to the Justice Department, “will allow American and British law enforcement agencies, with appropriate authorization, to demand electronic data regarding serious crime.”

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