Government overreach threatens foundations of app community

The legal battle surrounding the San Bernardino iPhone is no longer making headlines, but uncertainty about the future of data security is felt throughout Chicago's startup community, and by companies all across the country. Although law enforcement eventually hacked the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone without help from Apple, the government has always had its target set beyond smartphone manufacturers to include app makers.

The app economy emerged as a $120 billion industry in just eight years. Thanks to an influx of investment dollars, a steady flow of new graduates, and several incubators helping entrepreneurs grow, Chicago has quickly become a hub for many of the innovative startups succeeding in the app industry.

With the widespread use of smartphones, Chicagoans, and consumers everywhere, now expect mobile access to their most sensitive information, including private financial and medical data. Apps on mobile devices are how they store and retrieve this information.

As the CEO of a startup called Nomful, my team and I handle some of our customers' most private information. Our app pairs people with a personal nutrition coach to help them make healthy choices. Users then take pictures of the food they are eating, share it with their coach and get real-time feedback and re-enforcement. The sharing of this data is critical to the success of our app. Whether it's a Chicago teacher using the app in the classroom or a Peoria cafeteria making menu choices, the security of customer data is critical to our success.

App makers have embraced the same technology that powers Internet commerce, ATMs and medical record storage: encryption. Without this technology, digital commerce - an $8 trillion online marketplace - would never exist. Cash withdrawals would be limited to bank tellers, and nutrition coaching would be bound to once-a-month meetings in a dietitian's office. Apps are trusted with this same information and must provide the security that consumers expect.

The connected technology of apps brings advances in technology that make our lives better - and can even save them. Children's Hospital of Chicago uses an app from AirStrip that can send live health data from the ambulance to the emergency room. Allowing the ER to prepare a cath lab for the arrival of a stroke victim saves valuable time that can be the difference between life and death. AirStrip uses Department of Defense-level encryption to protect patient data in transit.

While Nomful can't point to immediate lifesaving outcomes, we believe that better-informed eating choices can have a dramatic impact on health. And our customers deserve advanced security features to protect sensitive data including health information, financial records, and private communications. Trust is the foundation that allows us to provide our services.

Unfortunately, the Justice Department is turning its attention to companies like ours.

In its quest for a broad precedent in the Apple case, the government claims the right to compel any company that writes software to provide government access. With an expansive reading of the 1789 All Writs Act, it seeks to compel any software company - even small app companies - to undermine its security by rewriting code and providing the government with a backdoor.

Governments outside the United States are already charting a dangerous course. In Brazil, Facebook's secure messaging app, WhatsApp, has been at the center of a similar dispute over encryption, which recently resulted in the arrest of the company's vice president for Latin America. This extreme action should serve as a cautionary tale for the U.S. government as it moves on from its battle with Apple.

App companies in Chicago, and all across the country, strive to make people's lives better. We help them make healthy choices, complete transactions from anywhere, and make work flow more efficient. While law enforcement must be able to do its job, private companies that are trusted keepers of sensitive information should not be the collateral damage to government overreach.

Thomas Gorczynski, of Lake Bluff, is the co-founder and CEO of Nomful, a Chicago-based nutrition app company.