Technology giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to refrain from supporting any US policy that would require the tech sector to install backdoors into their products so the authorities can access encrypted data.

In a letter (PDF) to Obama, dozens of tech companies, cryptologists, and rights groups said mandatory backdoors—which many authorities in the US government and abroad have been calling for—would weaken cybersecurity as well as "undermine human rights."

More than undermining every American’s cybersecurity and the nation’s economic security, introducing new vulnerabilities to weaken encrypted products in the US would also undermine human rights and information security around the globe. If American companies maintain the ability to unlock their customers’ data and devices on request, governments other than the United States will demand the same access, and will also be emboldened to demand the same capability from their native companies. The US government, having made the same demands, will have little room to object. The result will be an information environment riddled with vulnerabilities that could be exploited by even the most repressive or dangerous regimes. That’s not a future that the American people or the people of the world deserve.

Tuesday's letter comes as the White House is in the process of coming up with a position on the issue and in response to a chorus of government officials at home and abroad—including British Prime Minister David Cameron, FBI Director James Comey, and former Attorney General Eric Holder—all calling for backdoors.

Comey, for example, said last year that he was concerned about Apple producing phones that are encrypted by default, which likely precludes the authorities from accessing data on iPhones directly from a locked device's hardware, even with a warrant. The director said he was worried about "companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law."

So far, there has been no congressional proposal to back up the calls from high-ranking government officials for backdoors. For the moment, the rhetoric appears to be a tactic to guilt the tech sector into putting backdoors into their products themselves.

Tuesday's letter, however, shows that the tech sector isn't caving—meaning legislation requiring backdoors would have to be passed. In the US, the law in question is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, known as CALEA. The measure demands that telecommunication companies make their phone networks available to wiretaps. However, that requirement, at least for now, does not apply to phone hardware or most other communication services.

But that might change, especially when the White House announces, perhaps by this summer, a more formal position on the matter.

For the moment, Obama has hedged his position. The president has said he is a supporter and "believer in strong encryption" but also "sympathetic" to law enforcement's need to prevent terror attacks.

The letter to Obama concludes with a question: "The Administration faces a critical choice: will it adopt policies that foster a global digital ecosystem that is more secure, or less?"

Kevin Bankston, the policy director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, organized the letter. Here's why, he said: