Politician Wants to Ban Smartphone Encryption to Allow Police Easier Access to Your Data

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A California lawmaker is proposing a bill that would prevent smartphone manufacturers from allowing users the option to encrypt their data, according to reports.

Evidently to force citizens into a less secure society and a more efficient police state, Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, has introduced a bill in California to ban secure passcode technology in smartphones. 


Currently, Google and Apple use standard encryption in iPhones and Android devices to properly secure your private data from prying eyes via personal passcodes.



When you set a passcode to your iPhone or Android device, Google and Apple use standard encryption to secure your data so that it cannot be accessed unless you input your passcode. 



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For instance, with standard encryption if your phone was stolen a thief cannot just plug your phone into their computer and use a basic program to access all your information – including pictures of your significant other, phone numbers, email, personal notes.

According to privacy experts, standard encryption is the only way to protect your data from thieves and hackers.

Banning standard encryption effectively bans all current iPhones and Android devices.



Assembly Bill 1681 will punish companies such as Google and Apple for protecting our privacy.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/asm/ab_1651-1700/ab_1681_bill_20160120_introduced.html)



For each device sold as it is now, Google and Apple will be punished and fined $2,500.

For putting customers first and responsible business practices, these companies will lose billions of dollars.






A company should be awarded for protecting citizens against unreasonable searches as dictated by the Fourth Amendment of our constitution. 



However, Assemblyman Jim doesn’t seem to think so. 

Please write to Assemblyman Jim at https://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=AD09 to let him know that we do not have to sacrifice all of your photographs, emails, phone numbers, and information in order to “save the children.”



Assemblyman Jim is pushing this bill through by appealing to our rightful desire to fight human trafficking. 



He thinks our police officers should search inside the phone of an individual arrested for human trafficking, colloquially known as a “pimp” or “human waste.”






However, the bill overreaches and bans the sale of all smartphones as they are now.

We cannot ban a whole technology and punish all American citizens in order to police a few.

We are smarter than that. Let’s use our brains. That’s why we have them.