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Power Shifts Toward Techies in Latest Consumer Privacy Debate

Silicon Valley always had the smarts to protect consumer data. But now the tech community is finally demonstrating some resolve to use those skills.

(TNS) — On Tuesday, a who’s who of cybersecurity essentially slammed the door in the face of the United States and Great Britain. The experts’ report said giving the governments access to encrypted data passing through the likes of Apple, Twitter and Facebook represented an existential threat to the most sensitive information on the Internet.

That the FBI wants Congress to pass a law allowing the agency special access to encrypted communications is certainly alarming. Once again, Big Brother is trying undermine consumer privacy rights.

But let me offer a more optimistic counterpoint: In this latest tete-a-tete between the tech community and the feds, the balance of power seems to have shifted toward the techies.

This was certainly not the case just a few years ago when Silicon Valley seemed powerless to resist demands by the National Security Agency to spy on Internet traffic and collect bulk communications data from Americans. Now, we have FBI director James Comey whining to Congress about the iPhone 6.

“If the FBI could get past the encryption feature of the iPhone 6, the FBI wouldn’t be complaining about it so publicly,” said Jeremy Gillula, a staff technologist at the Electronic Freedom Foundation in San Francisco.

So what’s changed? Silicon Valley always had the smarts to protect consumer data. But now the tech community is finally demonstrating some resolve to use those skills.

And that’s largely thanks to whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The former NSA contractor’s revelations in 2013 about NSA’s bulk surveillance methods put the government on the defensive and emboldened (or shamed) tech companies that once acquiesced to the feds into safeguarding consumer data.

“Since the Snowden revelations, companies realized the benefits to be seen as pro-user security,” Gillula said. “Executives finally listened to what their security engineers have been saying for a long time. That it’s not hard to encrypt data and that it’s a better thing to do for users.”

Look what’s happened since the Snowden disclosures. Twitter, Facebook and Google have all stepped up encryption efforts, allowing users more options for protecting their data, and Congress passed a law with new limits on collecting bulk meta-data from Americans’ phone calls.

Top national security officials, including Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, have traveled to the Bay Area trying to make nice with Silicon Valley.

Damaging hacks targeting American companies and federal agencies also made the government realize it desperately needs the help of the tech industry, said John McConnell, a former director of national intelligence and Navy Admiral, during the recent RSA conference in San Francisco.

“The best cybersecurity tools will come from the private sector, not the government,” said McConnell, now a senior executive adviser to consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton.

The FBI knows this, which is why Comey is running to Congress.

If you want to take on Silicon Valley, make sure to speak softly and carry a big court order.

©2015 the San Francisco Chronicle, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.