Lobbying on Encryption Jumped Q1 Amid Apple-DOJ Standoff, Filings Show
Lobbying on encryption policy increased significantly in Q1, while interest in copyright and other tech sector policy issues remained largely on par with previous quarterly filings. At least 60 companies and groups lobbied on encryption issues and specific pieces of legislation during Q1, compared with just seven entities during the same period last year and 24 entities during Q4, according to available lobbying filings. Apple and Google reduced their lobbying expenditures in Q1 from the same period in 2015, while Amazon and Facebook posted significant increases (see 1604200036).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Google dropped lobbying spending in Q1 to $3.8 million, a more than 25 percent decrease from the $5.1 million it spent during the same period in 2015. Facebook enlarged its lobbying spending to $2.78 million, up almost 14 percent from the same period last year. Amazon’s spending rose to $2.65 million, up 39 percent from Q1 2015. Apple’s spending decreased to $1.13 million, an almost 9 percent decrease from Q1 2015. Oracle’s spending swelled 33 percent to $1.72 million, while Cisco’s spending dropped 30 percent to $420,000.
Most of the entities lobbying on encryption in Q1 were in the tech sector, including Apple and other top tech firms that directly challenged DOJ’s now-withdrawn effort to enforce a court order that attempted to force Apple to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c (see 1602170068 and 1603290059). Both Fierce Government Relations and Franklin Square Group lobbied on Apple’s behalf on encryption issues. Google and four lobbying firms represented the company on encryption issues on Capitol Hill.
Several firms mentioned the then-unnamed draft encryption bill from Senate Intelligence Committee leaders and the Digital Security Commission Act (HR-4651/S-2604) in their lobbying filings. Senate Intelligence’s Compliance with Court Orders Act would require providers of electronic communications, storage or processing services, and software or hardware manufacturers to comply with court orders to decrypt encrypted data of its users. HR-4651/S-2604 would create the 16-member National Commission on Security and Technology Challenges to address encryption and privacy issues.
The Apple-DOJ standoff “really catalyzed interest” in encryption policy and appears to have at least partially led to the private sector’s lobbying on the issue, said Brookings Institution National Security in Governance Studies fellow Susan Hennessey in an interview. The Apple-DOJ case likely pushed many companies over the edge on lobbying on encryption, though it was already “becoming increasingly clear that some form of legislation to address encryption was probably inevitable,” Hennessey said. “This is a debate that I think has been bubbling to the surface over the last two-to-three years, so it’s not a surprise that it’s finally reached the surface now” given the Apple-DOJ standoff, said Ryan Hagemann, technology and civil liberties policy analyst at libertarian think tank Niskanen Center.
“Prior to San Bernardino, a lot of companies were comfortable with the status quo” on encryption in which they would comply with law enforcement requests despite concerns about maintaining their consumers’ privacy, Hennessey said. Many companies now appear to be concerned that “some event will occur that will catalyze the public in a way that will result in bad legislation” on encryption, she said. “These companies believe it’s important to engage with Congress and try to convince them not to pass a bill” on the scale of the Compliance with Court Orders Act, Hennessey said.
Interest in encryption issues among parties on all sides “isn’t going to go away any time soon,” even if bills like the Compliance with Court Orders Act fail to make much progress in 2016, Hagemann said. “It’s obvious that law enforcement will continue to have very real concerns about encryption as we move further into the digital age,” and tech sector firms will clearly want to continue educating Congress as well. “At the very least, I would suspect lobbying on this will continue apace since this is an issue that’s regularly in the headlines,” an industry lobbyist said. “This is the issue of the day and I’d suspect [the recent rise in lobbying on encryption] marks the dawning of a new area of engagement between Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill,” Hennessey said.