EFF files amicus brief in Massachusetts forced decryption case

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently filed an amicus brief in a Massachusetts case on appeal concerning whether a court can force a defendant to decrypt a computer.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Leon Gelfgatt was charged with forgery and the government, with a search warrant, seized a number of his electronic devices. Law enforcement couldn't break the encryption that protected the devices, so it went to court, asking a judge to order Gelfgatt to decrypt the devices for them. The Fifth Amendment protects a person from being forced to testify against themselves and so the government promised not to look at the encryption key—the "testimony" in their eyes—but nonetheless wanted the ability to use the unencrypted data against Gelfgatt. The judge denied the government's request, ruling that forcing Gelfgatt to decrypt the devices would violate the Fifth Amendment.

The government appealed that decision and the case is now before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where we filed an amicus brief with the ACLU and the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Read the EFF's amicus brief for Commonwealth v. Gelfgatt here.

To read other Cybercrime Review posts on forced data decryption, view our encryption label.