Statement for the Record Deciphering the Debate Over Encryption Industry and Law Enforcement Perspectives United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Bruce Sewell Senior Vice President and General Counsel Apple Inc April 19 2016 Thank you Chairman Murphy Ranking Member DeGette and members of the Subcommittee It's my pleasure to appear before you today on behalf of Apple We appreciate your invitation and the opportunity to be part of this important discussion about encryption Hundreds of millions of people trust Apple's products with the most intimate details of their daily lives Some of you might have a smartphone in your pocket right now and if you think about it there's probably more information stored on that phone than a thief could steal by breaking into your house And it's not just a phone It's a photo album It's a wallet It's how you communicate with your doctor your partner and your kids It's also the central command center for your car or your home Many people also use their smartphone to authenticate and gain access to other networks businesses financial systems and critical infrastructure And we feel a great sense of responsibility to protect that information and access For all of these reasons our digital devices indeed our entire digital lives are increasingly and persistently under siege from attackers And their attacks grow more sophisticated every day This quest for access fuels a multi-billion dollar covert world of thieves hackers and crooks We are all aware of some of the recent large-scale attacks -- hundreds of thousands of social security numbers were stolen from the IRS the U S Office of Personnel Management said as many as 21 million people had their records compromised and as many as 78 million people were affected by an attack on Anthem's health insurance records The best way we and the technology industry know how to protect your information is through the use of strong encryption Strong encryption is a good thing a necessary thing And the government agrees Encryption today is the backbone of our cybersecurity infrastructure and provides the very best defense we have against increasingly hostile attacks The United States has spent tens of millions of dollars through the Open Technology Fund and other programs to fund strong encryption And the Administration's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology urged the U S government to fully support and not in any way subvert undermine or weaken generally available commercial encryption software At Apple with every new release of hardware and software we advance the safety security and data protection features in our products We work hard to assist law enforcement because we share their goal of creating a safer world I manage a team of dedicated professionals that are on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year Not a day goes by where someone on my team is not working with law enforcement We know from our interactions with law enforcement officials that the information we are providing is extremely useful in helping to prevent and solve crimes Keep in mind that the people subject to law enforcement inquiries represent far less than onetenth of one percent of our hundreds of millions of users But all of those users -- 100% of our users would be made more vulnerable if we were forced to build a back door As you heard from our colleagues in law enforcement they have the perception that encryption walls off information to them But technologists and national security experts don't see the world that way We see a data-rich world that seems to be full of information Information that law enforcement can use to solve -- and prevent -- crimes This is the difference in perspective that we should be focused on resolving To suggest that the American people must choose between privacy and security is to present a false choice The issue is not about privacy at the expense of security It is about maximizing safety and security We feel strongly that Americans will be better off if we can offer the very best protections for their digital lives Thank you for your time I look forward to answering your questions This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu