OTI Submits Comments to UK’s Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee on the Importance of Supporting Strong Encryption

WASHINGTON, DC — On December 21st, 2015, The Open Technology Institute (OTI) submitted comments regarding the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill in the United Kingdom. The Draft Investigatory Powers Bill includes consideration of computer and network exploitation (CNE) as a response to the loss of intelligence due to strong end-to-end encryption. OTI believes that the measures proposed in the draft bill could create significant risks to privacy, security, and innovation. OTI also signed on to group comments with Access Now, Advocacy for Principled Action in Government, the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Restore the Fourth, and TechFreedom encouraging the Committee to carefully consider the implications of the new bill.

The following quote can be attributed to Ross Schulman, Senior Policy Counsel at the Open Technology Institute:

The global debate about the purpose of encryption is ongoing, and the UK has a chance to be a leader on protecting strong encryption by modifying the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill to show greater intent to protect privacy, security and innovation. We encourage the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee to show their support for strong encryption and the protection of data in an increasingly hostile digital ecosystem.