{"id":8859,"date":"2016-03-07T21:53:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T01:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=8859"},"modified":"2016-03-07T21:53:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T01:53:23","slug":"following-a-public-outcry-amazon-will-reinstate-encryption-on-its-fire-devices-this-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2016\/03\/07\/following-a-public-outcry-amazon-will-reinstate-encryption-on-its-fire-devices-this-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Following a public outcry, Amazon will reinstate encryption on its Fire devices this spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rob Thubron<\/a> | TechSpot<\/a><\/p>\n

There are rare occasions when a consumer outcry can cause a company to reverse an unpopular decision it has made, and it seems Amazon is the latest firm to bow to public pressure. Only one day after an update removed<\/a> local encryption in its Fire range of products, Amazon has decided to restore the feature.<\/p>\n

Amazon said it removed the encryption, which it referred to as \u201centerprise features,\u201d because customers weren\u2019t using it. One of the features in question allowed owners to encrypt their device with a pin which, if entered incorrectly 30 times in a row, deleted all the data stored on it.<\/p>\n

Fire OS 5 was originally released in the fall of last year, but the issue came to light earlier this month when Amazon released an over-the-air update for its older Fire devices to upgrade from OS 4.<\/p>\n

The e-commerce giant\u2019s move was particularly surprising when you consider that Amazon is one of the big tech companies filing a court brief supporting<\/a> Apple in its battle with the Department of Justice. The outcome of the San Bernardino shooter iPhone case could have a profound effect on how firms implement encryption in their products, and whether they should include a backdoor to grant authorities access.<\/p>\n

As you would expect, Amazon\u2019s decision wasn\u2019t well received, and the company decided that returning the encryption features would be in everyone\u2019s best interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring,\u201d a spokesperson said. Amazon didn\u2019t state what prompted the company to change its mind, but the amount of negative publicity it received, coupled with the attention from the Apple case, doubtlessly played a big part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rob Thubron | TechSpot There are rare occasions when a consumer outcry can cause a company to reverse an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7,9],"tags":[58,325,367],"class_list":["post-8859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-security","category-software","tag-amazon","tag-encryption","tag-fire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-2iT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8839,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2016\/02\/22\/roku-4-vs-amazon-fire-tv-reviews-which-box-is-best-for-4k-streaming\/","url_meta":{"origin":8859,"position":0},"title":"Roku 4 vs. Amazon Fire TV reviews: Which box is best for 4K streaming?","author":"NCCT","date":"February 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jared Newman | PCWorld First came the 4K TVs, now come the 4K streaming boxes. 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While the security community was shocked earlier\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9372,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/07\/05\/this-week-in-tech-673-the-prozac-dash-button\/","url_meta":{"origin":8859,"position":2},"title":"This Week in Tech 673: The Prozac Dash Button","author":"NCCT","date":"July 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Wp3QiDVJwdA Reinventing Microsoft, Amazon\u2019s push into healthcare, new Apple Maps, and more. --Apple vs Samsung settled: our long international nightmare is over. --A proposed US law has patent trolls jumping for joy. --Amazon jumps into the healthcare business by buying online pharmacy PillPack. --Foxcon's new Wisconsin plant breaks ground. --Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Wp3QiDVJwdA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8666,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/10\/09\/u-s-will-not-seek-legislation-against-encryption\/","url_meta":{"origin":8859,"position":3},"title":"U.S. will not seek legislation against encryption","author":"NCCT","date":"October 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. administration will not seek legislation at this point to counter the encryption of communications by many technology services and product vendors, but will work on a compromise with industry, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. \"The administration is not seeking legislation at this time,\" Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9172,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2017\/05\/18\/this-week-in-computer-hardware-415-amds-epyc-threadripper-headed-to-the-vega-frontier\/","url_meta":{"origin":8859,"position":4},"title":"This Week in Computer Hardware 415: AMD’s EPYC Threadripper Headed To the VEGA Frontier","author":"NCCT","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7UYKeyCJ1sE We talk AMD's Threadripper... it's a 16 core 32 thread MONSTER coming this summer! 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