The Senate Judiciary Committee recently held ahearingon encryption and “lawful access.” That’s the fanciful idea that encryption providers can somehow allow law enforcement access to users’ encrypted data while otherwise preventing the “bad guys” from accessing this very same data. Learn more:

But the hearing was not inspired by some new engineering breakthrough that might make it possible for Apple or Facebook to build a secure law enforcement backdoor into their encrypted devices and messaging applications. Instead, it followedspeeches, open letters, and other public pressureby law enforcement officials in the U.S. and elsewhere to prevent Facebook from encrypting its messaging applications, and more generally to portray encryption as a tool used in serious crimes, including child exploitation. Facebook hassignaledit won’t bow to that pressure. And more than 100 organizations including EFFhavecalled on these law enforcement officials to reverse courseand avoid gutting one of the most powerful privacy and security tools available to users in an increasingly insecure world.