Competing Interests on Encryption Divide Top Obama Officials

The intensifying legal battle over encryption between Apple and the Justice Department has all but obscured another more subtle division, the one inside the Obama administration itself. Driven by competing and sometimes clashing interests about privacy, national security and the economy, some of the president’s most senior aides are staking out a variety of positions on the issue.

The White House denies there is disagreement over the effort to force Apple to break into the phone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino (CA) shootings, but the differences on how to deal with the broader questions raised by encryption have become increasingly apparent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants the ability to break into smartphones and computers for investigations. The Pentagon and intelligence officials worry that the same techniques could be used by foreign powers or hackers to drain data from phones used by the United States government, and that countries like China will demand the same access provided to American law enforcement officials.