Apple, however, has refused to comply.
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However, these voices ignore the fact that Google along with Dell, Facebook, Hewlett Packard, and the other tech giants who populate Silicon Valley’s Information Technology Industry Council released a joint statement in which they too expressed their concerns over “requiring technology companies to cooperate with governments to disable security features, or introduce security vulnerabilities”, as quoted by CNN Money.
But Apple insists that creating a way for law enforcement to access encrypted phone data would threaten the privacy of iPhone users everywhere. Is this about profits or patriotism?
Where you come down on this precedent-setting case depends partly on whom you trust less – the government or corporate America.
Apple may not have to build that backdoor into the iPhone after all if the government takes an outspoken security pro up on his offer.
Wozniak joins other notable technology executives, such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Whatsapp CEO Jan Koum, in applauding Cook’s open letter.
Wozniak believes that it’s not just the government that can misuse the custom software the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants, because “future people, that run something like Apple, might decide to use it in ways they shouldn’t”.
The Reform Government Surveillance campaign, meanwhile, of which Microsoft is a member, on Wednesday said “it is extremely important to deter terrorists and criminals and to help law enforcement by processing legal orders for information in order to keep us all safe”. “We have no sympathy for terrorists”.
They’re made in factories here and overseas by companies whose products are designed and built to separate human flesh from bone.
The FBI contacted Apple two weeks ago with a request for assistance in hacking the iPhone of one December’s San Bernardino mass shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI is “simply asking for something that would have an impact on this one device”, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Levie said he unequivocally supports Cook’s stance.
Cook had better hope and pray that whatever is on that phone doesn’t involve plans for another terror attack.
The back-and-forth marks an escalation of a dispute that, at least in public, has played out in mostly polite terms.
What we don’t share with Cook is a depth of technological knowledge. “The people who listened to Edward Snowden, and think his version of reality is close to the truth, may not understand that, but I think there are ample judicial protections that we could see in place here, and it may be something Congress is going to have to weigh in on”. “I’m not questioning their motivations”. Law enforcement agencies maintain that accessing mobile phone data can help prevent and solve crimes.
The US government has been ordering Apple to grant it access to an iPhone that prosecutors seized as evidence against an admitted methamphetamines dealer for the past three months.
“Any time you’re dealing with issues of security, and civil liberties, you got to balance them both”. The investigation is ongoing, and the FBI is now attempting to recover data from an iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters.
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Before the October refusal, Apple had a long history of compliance with All Writs Act orders.
