Today, Senators Burr and Feinstein released a draft bill requiring tech companies to create a government backdoor to every secure application or connected device. “The Burr-Feinstein bill makes broad, worrisome presumptions about the tech industry,” said Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association. “The proposed legislation would be ineffective in reaching its goals, and instead turn app distribution platforms into choke points for the successful mobile app ecosystem that Americans depend on every day. “We cannot continue to see [...]

Today, the bipartisan Email Privacy Act passed the House Judiciary Committee by unanimous vote. In response, Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association released the following statement: The overwhelming vote in the Judiciary Committee today reflects broad support in Congress and throughout the country to modernize our outdated data protection laws. Consumers now expect documents stored in online folders to have the same privacy rights as those stored in a filing cabinet. More than three-quarters of the [...]

The Burr-Feinstein proposed encryption legislation would require tech companies to create a government backdoor to any secure application or connected device. It would also force private companies to provide "technical assistance" at the behest of the government. The proposed legislation is dangerous. The extent to which Burr-Feinstein would threaten the security of the entire internet is simply breathtaking. The bill would force hundreds of thousands of companies to choose between breaking the law and protecting customer data. It would require everyone [...]

Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a tool for health app makers in coordination with Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In response, Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association, released the following statement: ACT | The App Association's Connected Health Initiative has been pushing for better regulatory guidance for connected health companies for some time. This [...]

Earlier today, the Department of Justice announced that they were able to get into the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone without Apple’s help. The DOJ asked the judge in the case to vacate the original order demanding Apple help the FBI hack the phone. In response to today's news, Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association: The government today announced what we had suspected all along. The drastic measures sought by the FBI to compromise the security of [...]

Last week, ACT | The App Association hosted the Connected Health Demo, drawing nearly 200 senior Congressional and agency staff to the Rayburn House Office Building foyer. Leading connected health companies from around the globe flew in for the event. These included AirStrip, Avizia, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Cisco, GE Care Innovations, Life 365, LifeWIRE, Locus Health, Medtronic, Microsoft, Philips, Podimetrics, ReSound, ResMed, Rimidi, Samsung, Sensible Medical, SyCom, TytoCare, University of Mississippi Center for Telehealth, and the University of Virginia Medical [...]