Encryption Is a Luxury

“Many of the devices that run Android software have cheap or out-of-date hardware that can’t handle continuous encryption and decryption. Google recently required that all new Android devices encrypt device data by default—but exempted slower (and therefore cheaper) phones, making encryption a de-facto luxury feature.”

“That disparity affects most smartphone users in the U.S. According to recent data from comScore, a company that studies technology use, about 53 percent of the 198.5 million smartphone owners in the U.S. use Android phones. That’s about 105 million people.”

“And there are some clear patterns that separate the kinds of people that own Apple and Android devices. According to 2013 survey data from Pew Research, high-earning and highly educated people are more likely to own an iPhone. The survey also showed that African-American people are more likely to use Android phones.”

“The groups most likely to use Androids—low-income people and African-Americans—are also the groups that are under the most daily government surveillance, says Michele Gilman, a civil-rights lawyer and law professor at the University of Baltimore. She says this is a long-standing pattern that’s been amplified by modern technology.”

““When encryption remains a luxury feature, those who are the most surveilled in our society are using devices that protect them the least from that surveillance,” said Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union. He calls this the “digital-security divide.””

“users who can only buy the cheapest possible smartphone are the most vulnerable to surveillance—and simultaneously the most likely to be surveilled”