Facebook wins court battle over law enforcement access to encrypted phone calls

Although the decision remains under seal, a federal judge in California apparently ruled that the government cannot force Facebook to break the encryption on its popular Messenger voice app in a criminal case in which agents wanted to intercept a suspect’s conversations. The decision could be a setback for the Justice Department which sought to compel Facebook to figure out how to give it access to the encrypted communications. It is a welcome development, however, for tech firms as they try to fend off government pressure to design their devices and services to accommodate surveillance while they build stronger encryption to safeguard their customers’ privacy.