Amazon says it has dropped device encryption in Fire OS 5 because customers weren't using it
Amazon confirms it has dropped device encryption support for its Fire Tablets — Amazon has confirmed that version 5 of Fire OS for its Fire tablet removes support for device encryption.
Context & Ripple Effects
Fire OS 5 arrived through a developer preview built on Android Lollipop in mid-2015, and Amazon shipped it to Fire tablets with one capability quietly removed: device encryption, which the company now says customers weren't using. The admission matters because encryption had been a default expectation for Android-based devices since Google began pushing it platform-wide.
The story moved fast: within roughly two days of the confirmation, Amazon reversed course and committed to restoring encryption support via a software update due this spring. The episode is an early data point in how Amazon treats its Android fork — a fork it still runs a decade later while planning a higher-end tablet revamp.
First-order effects
- Owners upgrading to Fire OS 5 immediately lose device encryption on their Fire tablets, leaving data unprotected if a device is lost or stolen until the promised spring update lands.
- Amazon faces direct reputational damage from framing a security feature as expendable, forcing a public commitment to restore it before the removal spreads beyond flagship devices.
Second-order effects
- Buyers who require encryption — enterprises, schools, government purchasers — have reason to hold off on Fire tablet deployments until the restoration actually ships, hitting the low-cost hardware line where volume is the whole business model.
- The speed of the walk-back signals that press and customer scrutiny, not internal usage telemetry alone, now gates which features Amazon can strip from Fire OS.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, budget-device makers will keep testing whether usage metrics justify dropping security defaults, but each reversal raises the cost of trying — pushing vendors toward treating encryption as table stakes rather than an optional feature.
- The episode foreshadows the longer tension in Amazon's forked-OS strategy: every divergence from stock Android becomes a support and trust liability, one reason the company is reportedly rethinking the Fire tablet line entirely.
The trend: Android-fork vendors are learning that stripping security defaults from cheap devices triggers fast public reversals, making encryption an increasingly non-negotiable baseline even at the low end.