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E-commerce leader Amazon.com ( AMZN ) has confirmed that it has disabled encryption on its tablets running Fire OS 5. News of the change comes at an auspicious moment, as a debate in the U.S. rages about whether Apple ( AAPL ) should create a tool that would give government access to a terrorist’s iPhone. Apple says that giving the feds such access would make all other iPhones more vulnerable. Amazon spokeswoman Robin Handaly emailed a prepared statement to IBD about the encryption change: “In the fall when we released Fire OS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using,” the statement reads. “All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud meet our high standards for privacy and security, including appropriate use of encryption.” Industry observers have been critical of Amazon’s decision to eliminate the security measure from its devices. “Removing device encryption due to lack of customer use is an incredibly poor excuse for weakening the security of those customers that did use the feature,” Jeremy Gillula of digital-rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation told IBD via email. “Given that the information stored on a tablet can be just as sensitive as that stored on a phone or on a computer, Amazon should instead be pushing to make device encryption the default — not removing it.” “Amazon’s decision is backward — it not only moves away from default device encryption, where other manufacturers are headed, but removes all choice by the end user to decide to encrypt it after purchase,” Nathan White, senior legislative manager at digital rights organization Access Now told Wired . “The devices themselves also become more attractive targets for thieves. Users should no longer trust these devices: If you wouldn’t post it to the Internet publicly, don’t put it on a Fire Tablet.” Amazon stock was flat in early afternoon trading on the stock market today . Typically, device encryption is used by device owners to protect their data in case the the device is lost or stolen. Amazon’s own chief technology officer just last month gave a speech strongly supporting encryption in general. Reports of the company terminating encryption have sparked debate on Amazon Web forums. Amazon, however, has joined 14 other tech giants in filing court papers that support Apple and its fight against the FBI. The government is attempting to gain access to an iPhone used by one of the dead terrorists in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. Other companies involved include Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google, Facebook ( FB ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ). Scalper1 News
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