Apple chief Tim Cook challenges US government to adopt “no backdoors” for encryption technology

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has challenged the US government to adopt a ''no backdoors'' policy in its approach to the encryption technology used by his company and other tech firms.

Cook's comments came at a recent meeting between US administration officials and technology companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Twitter, Dropbox and Cloudflare and Apple.

The Intercept reported that Cook  ''lashed out'' at suggestions that the encryption technology being used by tech companies might have 'backdoors' built in, to combat the use of encrypted communications by terrorists.

According to the report, a spirited exchange between Cook and US attorney general Loretta Lynch, who responded to the Apple CEO's comments with a warning about the need for ''balance'' between privacy and national security.

Apple and US agencies had clashed over encryption earlier and in September 2015, the company said it could not comply with a court order to hand over texts sent using iMessage between two iPhones, due to encryption of iMessages.

Apple had also come in for criticism from FBI director James Comey in September 2014, for the inclusion of end-to-end encryption in the iMessage system (See: Apple firms up users' data security)

''The notion that someone would market a closet that could never be opened – even if it involves a case involving a child kidnapper and a court order – to me does not make any sense,'' said Comey at the time, he criticised Google's Android

software on the same lines.

According to Cook, some people in Washington were hoping to undermine the ability of citizens to encrypt their data, which was dangerous. He described backdoor access as a key placed under a mat for cops or a burglar to find it easily. Cook

added that criminals would today use every technology tool they could lay their hands on to hack into people's account.

Once they know there is a key hidden somewhere (which is the backdoor access), they will work on it non-stop until they find it. So removing the encryption tool from their products, as what some officials in Washington are pushing for, will only

hurt the law-abiding citizens who rely on them to protect their data.