EFF sues Justice Department over decryption orders

The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — which seeks to determine the existence of such records — comes on the heels of a contentious debate between Silicon Valley and law enforcement over encryption.

“The lawsuit argues that the DOJ must disclose if the government has ever sought or obtained an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) requiring third parties — like Apple or Google — to provide technical assistance to carry out surveillance,” the nonprofit said in a blog post.

“If the government is obtaining FISC orders to force a company to build backdoors or decrypt their users’ communications, the public has a right to know about those secret demands to compromise people’s phones and computers,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo in the blog post.