While Apple fights law enforcement in a battle over whether they should be forced to provide a tool to break iOS encryption, Amazon is fighting their own encryption battle, against its customers.
The story broke earlier this week that Amazon had removed encryption in the latest update to Fire tablets, Fire OS 5, sparking outrage from those who were still sore over Apple"s battle.
After all, Amazon had publicly stood by Apple. Had they had a change of heart, deciding to stand with law enforcement in having a need for a back door to all encryption?
Well, no. Fire OS 5 shipped on Amazon"s latest line of Fire tablets back in September, so this whole thing predates the story between Apple and law enforcement. It"s mainly the Fire HD 6 that"s in question, as according to Amazon"s own documentation, that"s the only tablet that actually got upgraded to Fire OS 5.
Nevertheless, Amazon has released a statement stating that they changed their minds. The firm has officially done a 180, deciding to bring back encryption support in the next update to Fire OS, which should ship later this year.
Fire OS 5 was acclaimed upon its release for being "light", since Amazon ditched the carousel UI. After all, their goal was to ship a $50 tablet, so making the OS as light as possible was a priority.
It"s entirely probable that encryption support simply got dropped from the list of features in an effort to make the OS lighter, so it would run more efficiently on lower end hardware. When Amazon realized how upset people would become, they"re bringing it back.
Source: SlashGear