CEO Satya Nadella retweeted a tweet from President Brad Smith who pointed to a statement issued by Reform Government Surveillance, a group backed by Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, AOL, Facebook, Evernote, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Yahoo.
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Yesterday, Apple opposed a USA court’s ruling to unlock the iPhone of Syed Farook, who shot dead 14 people and injured 22 others in San Bernardino, California, along with another shooter last December.
Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted that the microblogging site stands with Apple and its chief executive Tim Cook and thanked Mr Cook for his leadership.
Now, Apple has created encryption so complex that it can’t crack Farook’s passcode, and Cook has vowed to appeal the court order. “That’s the only way we are going to ensure that law enforcement works effectively and privacy receives all the strong protection it deserves”, he said.
Facebook echoed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s sentiments saying that complying with the order would “create a chilling precedent and obstruct companies’ efforts to secure their products”.
“Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation”.
“For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe”, Cook wrote in the lengthy response.
“Once there’s a backdoor into the encrypted phone it’s naïve to think that will only be used in terrorist cases or really high importance cases”, said Armstrong. “It’s a balance between the right to privacy and the right of government to be able to obtain evidence in a criminal case”, said Connors.
The intelligence agencies believe that if they gain access to the phone, they can attain a lot of information that might be useful in preventing attacks in the future.
By the same token, major corporations such as Apple tend to brag about protecting privacy when it suits them, but share customers’ data when it’s in their financial interest.
The tech-giant’s move to refuse a federal court’s order sparked outrage. Donald Trump has wasted no time trashing Apple for refusing to help investigate terrorists, but this kind of superficial argument leads down a path that could be as risky to Americans’ security as ISIS.
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“What was being asked for was not a way to get at the iPhone, but a way to get the iPhone password”, Schneier told The Huffington Post on Thursday.
