Tech-focused lawmaker backs Apple, Microsoft warrant fight

Apple and Microsoft are finding allies on Capitol Hill in their fight to restrict the government’s access to customer data.

It was revealed earlier this week that Apple rejected a court order to turn over communications sent using its iMessage feature, citing the company’s encryption system. And on Wednesday, Microsoft argued in a federal appeals court that the government shouldn’t be allowed to compel the company to hand over emails stored in an overseas data center.

{mosads}“I commend those companies for what they’re doing,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told The Hill on Thursday.

Lofgren, who represents parts of tech-heavy San Jose, is one of Congress’s most vocal opponents of so-called “backdoors” in encryption — an access point known only to law enforcement agencies.

Lofgren, along with Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), introduced in Feburary the Secure Data Act, which would ban the government from compelling tech companies to create backdoor vulnerabilities.

At a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, FBI Director James Comey urged Silicon Valley to help create a method of encryption that doesn’t require a backdoor, but still allows companies to decrypt and hand over data when compelled by a warrant.

The tech community has balked at the request, arguing it’s an impossible task.

Lofgren sided with technologists.

“There’s no way to do this,” she said, citing a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology paper from leading computer scientists. “This cannot be done.”

“Obviously the government would like to get into individuals private information,” Lofgren added. “But if you build in flaws to the encryption it’s available not just to the government, but to China, to hackers.”