Pentagon gives employees encrypted phones, while the FBI lobbies to ban encryption

Privacy for thee, but not for me? Just as the FBI pushes Congress to ban smartphone encryption, which protects users' privacy, the Pentagon has begun giving employees phones with airtight encryption technology.

The phones in question — which would also keep out the prying eyes of the NSA — employ an encryption method that prevents even their manufacturer, Silent Circle, from accessing users' data.

In an interview with Vice, Silent Circle cofounder Mike Janke highlighted the hypocrisy of providing government employees with the very technology another part of the government wants to ban for the rest of us, saying, "[Pentagon workers] need it, why can’t the public need it? Why shouldn’t we be allowed to have it?"

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