Tech companies, security experts and civil liberties groups are filing court briefs supporting Apple in its battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Advertisement
“If the government arguments prevail, the Internet ecosystem will be weakened, leaving Internet users more vulnerable to hackers and other bad actors”, said a statement from the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which announced a joint amicus brief with the Internet Association and the i2 Coalition of Internet infrastructure firms.
Riverside-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, who is handling the case, has given organizations, companies and individuals until 5 p.m. today to file the briefs, known in legal parlance as amicus curiae briefs.
The effort is a rare display of unity and support for the iPhone maker from companies which are competitors in many areas, and shows the breadth of Silicon Valley’s opposition to the government’s anti-encryption effort.
“(The government request) is an overreach, the government is asking a tech company to undermine years of security”, Mozilla chief legal officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer told USA TODAY.
“The very security measures on which they have relied will have been compromised – and security “work arounds” created – by court order”.
The companies will contest government arguments that the All Writs Act, a broad 1789 law that enables judges to require actions necessary to enforce their own orders, compels Apple to comply with its request.
A number of other companies and associations were expected to file briefs in the case, which has divided the American public and set off a highly charged debate about what limits should be placed on law enforcement access to digital devices.
Earlier in the day, AT&T filed a brief also siding with Apple.
Saying the case threatens the privacy, security and transparency that make comprise the Internet, Twitter and its partners warned that the government’s demand, if backed by the court, could allow law enforcement to sidestep laws meant to protect consumers’ data.
The groups commended Apple for being a “valuable partner [to law enforcement] in case after case”, but said the company “changed course in a single – but crucial – way”. Other pro-Apple briefs were submitted by Access Now and Wickr Foundation, respectively a digital rights group and a non-profit committed to information privacy.
The FBI is demanding the software be built so it can unlock the iPhone 5C used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
In a blog post Thursday, AT&T General Counsel David McAtee said “laws have not kept pace with technology” and the telecom giant believes “Congress is the right body to decide” on the balance of personal privacy and security.
Advertisement
Law enforcement officials have said that Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others last December 2 at a holiday party.
