Somehow in the midst of all of the craziness around here, I missed that, as the New York Times reports, Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data. For the time being, they appear to have agreed to the rationale that a back door provides as much entree to the criminal element as it does to law enforcement, and that the benefits don't exceed the costs. I'm sure that part of this is also due to the political capital that would have to be expended to go against the interests of the tech industry, and the potential economic damage if the US continues to be a place where it is believed that the government has ready access to stored and in-flight data.

At least for the time being, this is good news for US companies that want to compete in international markets (especially Europe) where uer data protection is given more weight (in law, at least) than it is here.

The EFF has a more cautionary take on this announcement.