Amazon To Restore Encryption To Fire OS

Amazon has pledged to restore data encryption on its Fire OS software following a public backlash.

Only last week, the company said it would be removing encryption from the latest version of Fire OS because the security measure wasn’t popular, potentially placing the personal details of owners of Kindle Fire tablets, Fire Phone, Amazon Fire HD, or Amazon Fire TV Stick at risk.

Protected

“We will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring,” an Amazon spokesperson told TechWeekEurope, although there was no concrete date mentioned.

There’s also no suggestion that users who have already upgraded to Fire OS 5, the affected version of the software, will received assurance that their data is safely protected, or if anyone has yet been affected by leaks.

The move had been widely criticised by commentators across the technology space, as encryption is widely recognised as an essential service to protect customer data.

Bruce Schneier was among those critical of the move, calling Amazon’s removal of the feature “stupid” and urging the company to restore it.

It had been speculated that Amazon’s removal of encryption was linked to wider discussions surrounding the responsibility of device makers and software developers to allow certain organisations, such as law enforcement, access to all information created by users, following Apple’s struggles with the FBI concerning the unlocking the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, Syed Rizwan Farook.

Amazon was one of a number of major technology firms to sign a declaration of support for Apple last week.

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