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Our civil liberties are under threat.

Nicole Carty SumOfUs

The FBI and some members of Congress have been lobbying the White House to force companies to build “backdoors” (security vulnerabilities) into their technology, or to give the government a “golden key” to unlock our communications.

But our private data isn’t the only thing under imminent violation. The proposal jeopardizes the security of every technology that relies on this encryption, opening us to attacks from hackers, unscrupulous corporations and other malicious actors.

The White House is apparently considering these proposals right now and the decision hangs in the balance. Just one voice could tilt that balance in favour of uncompromised security and privacy: Barack Obama’s. So we’ve partnered with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to petition the White House, via the “We the People” site. Will you help us make this the most popular petition in the site's history?

Barack Obama: publicly affirm your support for strong encryption -- and reject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine our security.

The FBI’s plans to weaken encryption would weaken the entire internet, eroding the security of our devices and applications and undermining the integrity of our communications and systems. Even if you trust the government never to abuse its power (and that’s a big if), building vulnerabilities into our devices and applications would allow other bad actors to exploit them for their own ends.

No legislation, executive order or private agreement should undermine our rights to privacy and security. As a public, we deserve to be confident that the services we use haven’t been weakened or compromised by government mandate or pressure.

The fact the White House is developing an official policy on encryption gives us a huge opportunity to secure our rights. Imagine if we persuaded the President to publicly stand up for strong security and say no to secret backdoors in our technology? It would be a huge win for civil liberties, privacy and security -- and make it much harder for future governments to undermine them.

Let’s make it happen.

Barack Obama: reject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine our security. Instead, endorse strong encryption -- and encourage other world leaders to do the same.

Thanks for all that you do,

Nicole, Hannah, Nabil and the rest of the team at SumOfUs

The FBI and some of Congress have been lobbying the White House to force companies to hand them our private data. Instead of saying no outright, the White House could say yes at any point. The decision hangs in the balance.

Can you call on Barack Obama to reject this request immediately?

Sign the petition

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