The legislation would require tech companies to provide data in an “intelligible format” when ordered to by a court, effectively forcing them to implement backdoors or other measures to decrypt their users data.
 
The bill is a response to concerns that by using encrypted communications, criminal activity can be hidden from authorities. It follows soon after the dispute between Apple and the FBI concerning encrypted content on an iPhone was solved. Moreover, the arrest of Facebook executive over the refusal to provide data from Whatsapp is a sign that government agencies’ aggressive stance against encryption and privacy is set to be a major issue worldwide.