F.B.I. Director Calls ‘Dark’ Devices a Hindrance to Crime Solving...

(Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/us/politics/fbi-director-in-policy-speech-calls-dark-devices-hindrance-to-crime-solving.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0)

Privacy. A long hard battle fought between the government and us civilians. But what exactly does it  mean to have privacy? Well, according to our fourth amendment, we are allowed our privacy at long as a probable cause doesn't surface. Makes sense right? Don't do something illegal and your private life won't get viewed.

Well, according to this article from the New York Times, big companies such as Google and Apple protect people's privacy by using new encryption technology. This means that any information deleted can be encrypted and unable for the FBI to use, unlike public sites such as "Gmail" or "Facebook." 

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/executives/image/director-james-b.-comey-high-res

“Unfortunately, the law hasn’t kept pace with technology, and this disconnect has created a significant public safety problem,” Director James B. Comey had said, speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Thursday. So what does that mean? The FBI can't look into you phone's past history (of course applying to the new iPhone 6.) This makes their jobs much more difficult, as Comey starts to go on about how much harder it would be to catch, for example, a terrorist. If they aren't allowed to look into one's past messages, then they wouldn't know if someone is going to do something suspicious.

“It frustrates me, because I want people to understand that law enforcement needs to be able to access communications and information to bring people to justice,” Mr. Comey said. “We do so pursuant to the rule of law, with clear guidance and strict oversight.” 

 The American Civil Liberties Union, however, disagreed. 

“Federal law explicitly protects the right of companies to add encryption with no back doors,” Laura W. Murphy, director of the group’s Washington legislative office had said in a written statement. “Whether the F.B.I. calls it a front door or a back door, any effort by the F.B.I. to weaken encryption leaves our highly personal information and our business information vulnerable to hacking by foreign governments and criminals.”

On top of that, companies even argued that with encryption, there are still ways for law enforcement to legally interpret encryption by intercepting data in the cloud, or use force to get passwords to their devices. 

“Uploading to the cloud doesn’t include all of the stored data on a bad guy’s phone.” Comey had said in reply to this statement. He also argued that this would create a “black hole” if criminals opted not to store any data on the cloud. Also, they are limited in their ability to have their super-computer find combination to passwords for devices.

So, over all, what do I think about this? 

I personally feel that the FBI should be updated in their technology to encrypt. I mean, there are 316,128,839 people living in US. I'm pretty sure that our government wouldn't look into every one of our phone's data and read into our private lives. Only if you have a "probable cause" or a reason for them to look. If you aren't doing anything dangerous or illegal, no worries! They won't look at you message. However, if you are doing something that might cause harm, then obviously the FBI will look at your phone. This would protect us in the long-run from harm and danger.