Amazon Nixes Encryption Support For Fire Tablets In FireOS 5 Update, Making Them Inherently Less Secure

So what exactly is Amazon’s reasoning for removing support for device encryption at a time when more and more companies are employing it to protect customer data? “In the fall when we released Fire OS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using,” said Amazon in a statement to TechCrunch. “All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud meet our high standards for privacy and security including appropriate use of encryption.”

You can thank Electronic Frontier Foundation member David Scovetta for highlighting the regression in functionality and posting his findings to Twitter:

While Apple fights the good fight, @Amazon removes encryption as option from FireOS 5 | @csoghoian @normative @eff pic.twitter.com/nggBdtFG7j

— David Scovetta (@davidscovetta) March 3, 2016

This is peculiar timing for news of encryption support being removed considering that a host of prominent tech companies came out in support of Apple this week in its fight to save the sanctity of device encryption. In fact, Amazon was one of the companies listed in the amicus brief supporting Apple.

Users on Amazon’s support forums have also come out against the decision to remove encryption, with user John G. writing, “Now I know that lower end devices can take huge performance hits with full device encryption enabled, and Amazon's latest tablets are budget devices. But is it not unreasonable of Amazon to remove the option of it - you don't have to use it.”

In the grand scheme of things, Fire tablet devices from Amazon aren’t exactly racking up the same kind of sales numbers that you’d see with iOS and [official] Android-based tablets, so the relative impact is minimal. But we definitely have to take pause whenever a company makes its devices less secure.