The FBI is worried that Apple and Google's new phones will be too tough to crack.
Director James Comey told media on Thursday that devices that make data secure could impede authorities from protecting people, the Christian Science Monitor reported via the Wall Street Journal.
"What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law," Comey said in a news briefing, as quoted by the Journal.
He said that FBI officials have been in talks with Apple and Google and that "it may be time" for the country to discuss whether we're "doing things that no longer make sense, that are no longer consistent with our commitment that we are a country of law where no one is beyond the law."
In the wake of the NSA revelations of summer 2013, the technology industry has been looking for ways to ensure consumer privacy. Both Google and Apple are launching new operating systems that will purportedly protect data when the devices are locked.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple last week announced a feature in iOS8 that will purportedly stop authorities from retrieving data, while Google has emphasized that its updated Android system will also protect data from law enforcement and the company itself.
The option in the new Apple OS encrypts phone data at the prompt of a passcode, rendering the device protected against anyone except the user.
Apple will still hand over iCloud and iTunes data upon court order, the Monitor noted.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that police must obtain a warrant before searching the cellphone of a suspect.
Saying that data must be accessible would be "like saying you have to leave your door open in case we have an exigent circumstance and we need to search your house without a warrant," Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of New York University's Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program, told the Monitor.
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