Apple and Google, two of the biggest tech companies in the world today, are the most recent additions to the signed open letter to President Obama urging him to deny law enforcement backdoor access to smartphones' encrypted data.

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Ever since famed whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the truth about the National Security Agency's (NSA) data mining efforts, the issue of encryption safety versus 'legal' backdoor access has made headlines every time the world's right to digital privacy is threatened. Appropriately enough, hundreds of technological firms and civil rights organizations have taken steps to protect user privacy.

In the letter, Silicon Valley's top tech companies asked Obama to reject any government proposals that could grant law enforcement agencies access to the encrypted data of their users.

"Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy's security," the letter reads. "Encryption protects billions of people every day against countless threats-be they street criminals trying to steal our phones and laptops, computer criminals trying to defraud us, corporate spies trying to obtain our companies' most valuable trade secrets, repressive governments trying to stifle dissent, or foreign intelligence agencies trying to compromise our and our allies' most sensitive national security secrets."

The signatories believe that by giving the government power to randomly access the common man's encrypted data, those in power are effectively crippling efforts made by manufacturers to protect the security of their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other products. For instance, Apple announced last year that it would be encrypting their devices by default. This means that law enforcement would have to obtain a person's passcode before they could access encrypted data from an iPhone. Android's latest Lollipop updates also have similar encryption options.

The letter also addressed the signatories' support for a report by the Presidential Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies made last December 2013, that called for an increase in encryption protection and the improvement of online privacy protection as a whole. Aside from Apple and Google, the other signatories in the letter also include:

American Civil Liberties Union

Benetech

Freedom of the Press Foundation

Cisco Systems

Yahoo

Twitter

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Symantec

Hewlett-Packard Company

TagsTech Companies, Obama, encryption access