
The recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump has reignited the debate over digital privacy and law enforcement’s access to encrypted data. At a recent hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed that while the bureau had accessed some content from the devices of the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, it faced significant challenges due to encryption.
During the hearing, Wray lamented the obstacles posed by encrypted platforms like Signal, WhatsApp, and Proton Mail, which protect communications so only the sender and recipient can read them. “The FBI complains about going dark. When you look at the statistics on how often they intercept communications, this is the golden age of surveillance,” said Greg Nojeim, a lawyer at the Center for Democracy and Technology, during a virtual meeting hosted by Demand Progress.
Wray explained that accessing Crooks’s phone was a technical challenge and that encrypted messaging applications were particularly problematic. “We have been able to get into and exploit a number of electronic devices, digital devices but not all of them yet…some of them we may never get access to because of the encryption issue,” Wray said.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate informed lawmakers that the FBI had initiated a “legal process” with 30 companies, awaiting responses from 18, including encrypted platforms, in relation to the Crooks investigation.
Hajar Hammado, a senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, expressed concern over the FBI’s attempts to break through encryption, fearing it could lead to broader government overreach. “Given the FBI’s long history of working to undermine end-to-end encryption, it’s very likely they will ask the next president to help them do it,” Hammado stated.
Former Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a participant in the privacy meeting, recalled the 2015 San Bernardino shooting controversy, where the FBI sought Apple’s help to unlock an iPhone. Apple resisted, but the FBI eventually accessed the phone through a third party, Azimuth Security. In Crooks’s case, the FBI used software from Cellebrite, an Israeli firm.
Noah Chauvin, a law professor at Widener University, noted law enforcement’s persistent efforts to pressure encryption platforms to create backdoors for government access. Goodlatte warned that such backdoors could create security vulnerabilities, exposing data to foreign adversaries and criminal organizations.
The privacy advocates discussed legislative measures to protect encryption, including an amendment by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) to prohibit FBI funding for undermining encryption. Davidson’s amendment, part of a congressional appropriations bill, will be addressed after the August recess.
Despite ongoing friction between privacy advocates and the government, any legislative action on encryption is likely months away.