California Bill Would Require Phone Crypto Backdoors

Trailrunner7 writes with this except from On The Wire: A week after a New York legislator introduced a bill that would require smartphone vendors to be able to decrypt users' phones on demand from law enforcement, a California bill with the same intent has been introduced in that state's assembly. On Wednesday, California Assemblyman Jim Cooper submitted a bill that has remarkably similar language to the New York measure and would require that device manufacturers and operating system vendors such as Apple, Samsung, and Google be able to decrypt users' devices. The law would apply to phones sold in California beginning Jan. 1, 2017. Of course, "smartphone vendors" wouldn't be able to decrypt voice calls sent using VoIP software that was encrypted outside their domain of influence.

Comments

Re: Technically feasible, probably already done.

[omnichad]

When I take out my SIM card, my phone still boots.

Works good against average people

[OrangeTide]

But fails to penetrate a device used by organized crime, terrorists, a technologically adept pedophile, or a well connected businessman.

Is Joe the Plumber the threat here? because that's about all this regulation will stop.

PS - I usually buy my smartphones on aliexpress and import them to California.