Shamed Amazon Decides to Restore Full-Disk Encryption to Its Fire OS Devices

[Exterminator]

Content source

http://news.softpedia.com/news/shamed-amazon-decides-to-restore-full-disk-encryption-to-its-fire-os-devices-501395.shtml

Amazon has announced it will be restoring support for full-disk encryption to its mobile devices running Fire OS after the company was criticized from all sides this past weekend.

The entire scandal started after a user received a delayed update to Fire OS 5 for his Amazon device. The user read the changelog and discovered that the new Fire OS 5 version had removed support for full-disk encryption.

The user then took a screenshot and posted it on Twitter, from where the tweet took off and became viral, starting a barrage of anti-Amazon rants from various users who accused the company of siding with the government in the FBI vs. Apple encryption debate.

Amazon tried to explain that it removed support for encryption last September and that it did it for a valid reason, saying that users weren't using it.

Unfortunately, the timing of this media scandal couldn't have been worst, and now, to avoid more damage to the Amazon brand, the company has announced it plans to bring back support for full-disk encryption.

Amazon hasn't provided an exact date, but it has said the update will be delivered sometime this spring.

The immense backlash the company has received shows exactly why many have sided with Apple in the FBiOS scandal, and why, despite its best intentions, the FBI can't win this fight no matter how much it tries, the public opinion being always against it.

 

[hjlbx]

LOL... scathing criticism is sometimes the only way to get a vendor to make user-desired changes.

Hint-hint: Microsoft, Webroot, COMODO,...

However, it don't seem to work too good with Webroot or COMODO.