Why the Feds want to make it easier for them to get into your phone

The Justice Department wants to add a feature to your smartphone shopping list: “responsible encryption.”

In an Oct. 10 speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland., Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a case to step back from what the tech industry generally sees as an advance in security: “warrant-proof” encryption on devices that even court-authorized investigators can’t unlock.

Instead, he urged tech firms to adopt “responsible encryption”—as in, the kind “that allows access only with judicial authorization.” Read more