Amazon to Restore Encryption on the Fire Tablet

Even as Apple went to court to fight the FBI over encryption, Amazon quietly disabled the option to protect data stored on its Fire tablets.

Amazon has quickly reversed itself, issuing a statement that full disc encryption would be restored with a Fire operating system update in the spring. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The Seattle retail giant took heat from privacy and encryption advocates, who want encryption switched on by default.

https://twitter.com/davidscovetta/status/705311217737314304

Wired notes that Amazon removed device encryption support last fall, when it redesigned the Fire OS 5. The company said customers weren’t using it.

Amazon’s change of heart comes as the Seattle retail giant joined other major technology companies backing Apple’s efforts to overturn a court order to help law enforcement unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack. Technology companies make a variety of legal arguments, among them that the government lacks the legal authority to conscript a third party to modify a product to aid it in gathering evidence.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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