Apps with encryption isn’t so much about trying to skirt around the government’s prying eyes, but it’s more about security and privacy in general. Sometimes we might send sensitive information like credit card information or company secrets that we’d rather not have hackers be able to intercept and use to their advantage.However with the debate going on these days, the government is making it sound like encryption apps are like a slap to their face. In fact according to a recent report from Motherboard, two police officials have even suggested that companies such as Google and Apple should block/censor encryption apps from their app stores.
When asked by Congressman Morgan Griffith how the US government expects to enforce regulations on apps that weren’t even made or are based outside of the US, Thomas Galati, the chief of intelligence at the New York Police Department said, “Certain apps are not available on all devices. So if the companies that are outside the United States can’t comply with same rules and regulations of the ones that are in the United States, then they shouldn’t be available on the app stores.”
Charles Cohen, the commander of the office of intelligence and investigative technologies for the Indiana adds, “Right now Google and Apple act as the gatekeepers for most of those encrypted apps, meaning if the app is not available on the App Store for an iOS device, if the app is not available on Google Play for an Android device, a customer of the United States cannot install it.”
It seems unlikely that this is something that Google or Apple would be interested in doing. If anything it seems like more companies are starting to include encryption features, with recent updates from WhatsApp and Viber proving just that.
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