Apple may have said that it opposes the idea of weakening encryption and providing governments with backdoors into products, but things are rather different in China. The Chinese parliament has just passed a law that requires technology companies to comply with government requests for information, including handing over encryption keys.
Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the controversial law is the Chinese government's attempt to curtail the activities of militants and political activists. China already faces criticism from around the world not only for the infamous Great Firewall of China, but also the blatant online surveillance and censorship that takes place. This latest move is one that will be view very suspiciously by foreign companies operating within China, or looking to do so.
http://betanews.com/2015/12/27/china-passes-law-requiring-tech-firms-to-hand-over-encryption-keys/
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday December 28 2015, @09:20PM
Or do things like this make me thing they are panicking?
Or is it totalitarian power loss anxiety?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 28 2015, @11:33PM
They want a chilling effect on encryption. Discourage wide spread use of encryption capable of resisting surveillance and even lawful warrants. Keep close tabs on the remaining users.
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