Re/Code’s Kara Swisher talks with Barack Obama about encryption becoming a default

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Where there is a situation in which we’re trying to get a specific case of a possible national security threat — is there a way of accessing it? If it turns out it’s not, then we’re really gonna have to have a public debate. And, you know, I think some in Silicon Valley would make the argument — which is a fair argument, and I get — that the harms done by having any kind of compromised encryption are far greater …

KARA SWISHER: That’s an argument you used to make.

BARACK OBAMA: Well …

KARA SWISHER: You would have made. Has something changed with…

BARACK OBAMA: No, I still make it. It’s just that I am sympathetic to law enforcement.

KARA SWISHER: Because years [ago], you were much stronger on civil liberty.

BARACK OBAMA: I’m as strong as I have been. I think the only concern is our law enforcement is expected to stop every plot. Every attack. Any bomb on a plane. The first time that attack takes place in which it turns out that we had a lead and we couldn’t follow up on it, the public’s going to demand answers.

— Re/Code’s Kara Swisher talks with Barack Obama about encryption becoming a default (Dialogue from the full transcript of their conversation).