CEO Michael Dell Says Encryption Backdoors Are 'a Horrible Idea'

TECH DELL
CEO Michael Dell Says Encryption Backdoors Are 'a Horrible Idea'

SAN FRANCISCO - SEPTEMBER 22: #Dell CEO Michael Dell delivers a keynote address during the 2010 Oracle Open World conference on September 22, 2010 in San Francisco, California. The Oracle Open World runs through September 23.

@MichaelDell, chief executive officer of his self-named computer company, knows on whose side he stands amid the great encryption debate—the question of whether tech companies should supply certain governments with access to their users’ encrypted communications. He is adamantly opposed.

“Our position on creating a back door inside our products so that the government can get in is that it’s a horrible idea,” he told the Telegraph, a United Kingdom-based newspaper, on Sunday.

Dell’s condemnation comes soon after Theresa May, the British home secretary, earlier this month unveiled a draft piece of legislation that proposes to grant UK spy agencies and law enforcement sweeping surveillance powers. The draft Investigatory Powers Bill requires communications service providers to assist the government in investigations by “maintaining the ability to remove any encryption applied by the CSP to whom the notice relates,” as the text of the bill states.

Depending upon the proposed bill’s implementation, it could greatly hinder or even end strong #encryption in the country. (Although other people are skeptical that the bill, if adopted, would change much.)

http://fortune.com/2015/11/16/dell-encryption-backdoors-horrible-idea/