4 ms·

From what I heard, the encryption was having a very noticeable impact on performance.

angryasian 12y ago
this is the most likely scenario. The reality is most people notice and care about performance. The majority of people don't care about privacy and encryption. Its still available to those that want it.
- mindajar 12y ago
  And everyone will think they're secure anyway, since Google got lots of press for announcing they'll encrypt everything. Win-win for Google!
eyeareque 12y ago
Interesting. I wonder why the iPhone doesn't have the same issue?
- jgroszko 12y ago
  Apple controls the entire hardware stack on an iPhone
- magicalist 12y ago
  At the very least, iPhone 6 is ARMv8-A, so has AES instructions.
- extra88 12y ago
  Because iPhones have had encryption hardware since the 3GS (2009). "Data protection is available for devices that offer hardware encryption, including iPhone 3GS and later, all iPad models, and iPod touch (3rd generation and later)." https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202064 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202064
  - eyeareque 12y ago
    This should be a hardware requirement imposed by google then.
higherpurpose 12y ago
Yes, but only because it wasn't backed by hardware-accelerated encryption (like the iPhone is). I feel like this is mostly Qualcomm's fault, but also Google's for announcing a product (FDE) that wasn't actually fully ready to come to market (typical half-assism from Google, I would say). This pisses me off because many people now might not want to use encryption anymore even when it does get hardware accelerated and the issue is solved, because of all the articles that "encryption slows down your Android devices" Google has caused to appear now.
akgerber 12y ago
I tried encryption on my HTC One M7, currently running 4.4, and performance was sufficiently bad to make the phone barely usable. Then I needed to factory-reset the phone to turn encryption off.

this is the most likely scenario. The reality is most people notice and care about performance. The majority of people don't care about privacy and encryption. Its still available to those that want it.

mindajar 12y ago
And everyone will think they're secure anyway, since Google got lots of press for announcing they'll encrypt everything. Win-win for Google!

eyeareque 12y ago

Interesting. I wonder why the iPhone doesn't have the same issue?

jgroszko 12y ago
Apple controls the entire hardware stack on an iPhone
magicalist 12y ago
At the very least, iPhone 6 is ARMv8-A, so has AES instructions.
extra88 12y ago
Because iPhones have had encryption hardware since the 3GS (2009). "Data protection is available for devices that offer hardware encryption, including iPhone 3GS and later, all iPad models, and iPod touch (3rd generation and later)." https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202064 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202064
- eyeareque 12y ago
  This should be a hardware requirement imposed by google then.

higherpurpose 12y ago

Yes, but only because it wasn't backed by hardware-accelerated encryption (like the iPhone is). I feel like this is mostly Qualcomm's fault, but also Google's for announcing a product (FDE) that wasn't actually fully ready to come to market (typical half-assism from Google, I would say). This pisses me off because many people now might not want to use encryption anymore even when it does get hardware accelerated and the issue is solved, because of all the articles that "encryption slows down your Android devices" Google has caused to appear now.

akgerber 12y ago

I tried encryption on my HTC One M7, currently running 4.4, and performance was sufficiently bad to make the phone barely usable. Then I needed to factory-reset the phone to turn encryption off.