New Level of Smartphone Encryption Alarms Law Enforcement

Moves by Apple and Google to put some smartphone data out of the reach of police and the courts are raising alarms inside US law-enforcement agencies, current and former officials say.

Several officials in Washington said they were bracing for a confrontation with Silicon Valley on the issue, the latest fallout from the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about government surveillance. The moves highlight the continuing challenge for law enforcement in responding to new technologies. Other innovations, such as texting, instant messaging and videogame chats, created hurdles to monitoring communication, though law-enforcement agencies in almost every instance eventually found ways to overcome them. But this time, two of the best-known US companies are advertising that their phone systems may be able to beat a court order, and putting the technology in the hands of tens of millions of people.