Going Dark: Are Technology, Privacy, and Public Safety on a Collision Course?

Tags: 2010s FBI Going Dark James Comey Public Safety Speech

Authors: Comey, James

Published: October 2014

URL: https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/going-dark-are-technology-privacy-and-public-safety-on-a-collision-course

Abstract: This speech by FBI Director James Comey, offered at the Brooking Institute in 2014, discusses the challenges that encryption and going dark present to law enforcement. Director Comey discusses how a proliferation in digital data and communication are increasingly encrypted, and how law enforcement is technologically incapable of keeping up. Further, CALEA is not equipped to offer fair access to newer forms of technology. The speech closes by urging the American public to engage with these issues and become involved. This speech offers a look into the mindset of law enforcement in 2014, and how they viewed the challenges that encryption presented.