Google have announced that the upcoming version of Android 5.0 will encrypt devices by default, The Washington Post reports. Current versions of Android have allowed users to encrypt their devices for a while, something which most users have probably never looked at. The change in policy will mean that all devices will be encrypted though it remains to be seen whether this will happen as part of upgrading the OS to Android 5.0 or whether it will only be on new devices.
There’s no doubt that this would appear to be an attempt to prevent law enforcement organisations around the world from accessing your devices via the usual route of a court order. Of course, this doesn’t mean you won’t have to spill the beans if you get arrested. An ever increasing number of countries require you to give up your encryption codes, and there’s little Google can do to help. However, making every device encrypted by default does mean that this shouldn’t be able to happen without your approval (coerced or otherwise) which can only be a good thing.
The full article can be found here.
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