33 Pages Posted: 14 May 2015 Last revised: 1 Mar 2016

Date Written: May 11, 2015

Abstract

American tech companies are introducing a form of encryption that enables people to securely store information on their cell phones and communicate via the internet, but cannot be decrypted by anyone other than the sender and receiver. Hence, even if the authorities have proven to courts that they have reasonable and particularized suspicion that a given person is a terrorist or serial killer, the tech companies still cannot themselves, or enable authorities, to decrypt the data. The article critically examines the reasons given in support of making such encryption and the legal grounds on which it should be banned.