OTI Joins 195 Companies, Organizations, and Individuals from 42 Countries Asking World Leaders to Support Strong Encryption

Washington D.C. — Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute joined 195 experts, companies, and organizations from more than 40 countries in asking world leaders to support strong encryption and to reject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine digital security. The letter is now open to public support and is hosted at https://www.SecureTheInternet.org.

Governments around the world are considering legislation and other proposals that would undermine strong encryption. For example, the Chinese government earlier this month issued new regulations that would require companies to turn over encryption keys and create backdoors into their software for counterterrorism investigations. When the U.S. government protested the move, China called it hypocritical, pointing to vocal attacks on encryption by some top U.S. law enforcement officials.

The letter, organized by Access Now with the support of dozens of organizations including OTI, allows organizations and individuals to declare their support for strong encryption. The letter will be delivered to world leaders who, according to press reports, are considering legislation and other steps that would undermine encryption.

The Open Technology Institute has been a leader in the fight to protect end-to-end encryption from government interference through its extensive research, writing and testimony on the subject. as well as its role in organizing a broad coalition to press the White House to reject the idea of surveillance backdoors and support encryption. More recently, OTI organized a meeting on the issue with White House officials in light of a successful We The People petition led by Access Now and allied organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The following quote can be attributed to Kevin Bankston, Director of the Open Technology Institute:

As our reliance on the Internet grows, so too does our need for strong encryption to secure our data, yet this critical technology is under attack. Now is the time for leaders around the world to stand up for our freedom and our security by defending our right to encrypt against those who seek to undermine it,and there is no country more suited to lead the charge than the United States. We strongly urge President Obama to demonstrate global leadership by heeding the call of the over one hundred thousand Americans that have petitioned for him to support strong encryption, and reject the idea of weakening everyone’s security in order to facilitate government surveillance.

The following quote can be attributed to Ross Schulman, Senior Policy Counsel at OTI:

Privacy, freedom of expression, and security are all under threat in the global fight over encryption. Any government that disregards the decades-long unanimous opposition of civil society, tech companies, and security experts to surveillance backdoors into our encrypted products and services is bound to find itself on the wrong side of history. Encryption plays a vital role in protecting human rights, privacy, freedom of expression, and modern commerce. This global threat to encryption can only be defeated by global leadership, and OTI is honored to join with so many others from around the world to press for that leadership.