The Law and Technology Both Should Protect Privacy

Marshall Erwin, writing in Just Security this week, makes the case that technology should thwart government access to user data just as it has been facilitating government surveillance until Apple and Google decided to start encrypting user data when devices are locked. "The arguments made by critics of Apple and Google assert that these changes will result in damage to the public interest by protecting criminals and those who want to do us harm. More importantly, they suggest that warrant protections are necessary and sufficient to safeguard the public interest and to adjudicate the circumstances under which the government may access data," Erwin writes. He says it's wrong to suggest that only legal mechanisms, not technical mechanisms, should restrict government access to user data.