14 DAY TRIAL // While law enforcement agencies, those aspiring to more control over user data in particular, are advocating for the necessity to have access to the individuals’ private information, President Obama said in an interview that he believed in strong encryption.
He explained that the issue of privacy versus protection is a complex one that comes with trade-offs with regard to safety concerns.
Tech giants, on the one hand, enforced protection of customer privacy and shut the door used by the US National Security Agency (NSA) for their massive collection of data, while on the other, NSA says that this activity was necessary in the fight against terrorism.
“I lean probably further on side of strong encryption than some in law enforcement,” Obama told Re/code in an interview.
The President made a valid point in that the general public could hold law authorities responsible for not following through a lead because of technical issues such as encryption.
No reference was made during the interview to a case where encryption made an investigation more difficult.
However, an agency with access to information about a potential future attack and failing to connect the dots or to notice it in order to prevent the incident is not unheard of.
Obama said that he understood that the needs of both parties were real and that private communication should not be compromised. “There’s no scenario in which we don’t want really strong encryption,” the President said.
