FBI Director: Americans Never Had 'Absolute Privacy'

Nextgov: FBI Director James Comey said his agency is preparing for a renewed conversation on encryption by collecting information regarding how “widespread default encryption” has affected law enforcement at the federal level.

Comey said default encryption—especially on mobile devices—in the post-Edward Snowden era has fundamentally impacted law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels, providing a near “absolute privacy” he argued had never occurred before in history. Comey said the FBI has been unable to collect evidence from 650 of 5,000 devices, including mobile phones and tablets, received from state and local governments this year.

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