Amazon has removed the option of using encryption on its Android-based products in the latest update of its operating system, allegedly because users were not taking advantage of it.
“In the fall when we released Fire OS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using,” Amazon said in a statement. However, the company said, “All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud” do include “appropriate use of encryption.”
That means criminals and government officials may be able to hack data stored on Amazon devices, but not necessarily on external servers. Though the company claims the move came because the feature wasn’t being used, critics have observed that it was announced just as Apple is fighting the federal government over whether it should be forced to help officials to bypass encryption on its own devices.
While Apple fights the good fight, @Amazon removes encryption as option from FireOS 5 | @csoghoian @normative @eff pic.twitter.com/nggBdtFG7j
— David Scovetta (@davidscovetta) March 3, 2016
“While Apple fights the good fight, Amazon removes encryption as [an] option,” David Scovetta, a cybersecurity analyst in San Francisco, said in a message on Twitter.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2584612
Devices affected include Amazon’s Kindle e-readers and other devices that uses its Fire operating systems, including cellular devices, tablets and televisions.
