Apple today asked a judge to throw out the order requiring it to hack the phone of an attacker in the San Bernardino case and followed it up with a request of its own: that its peers stand behind it to fight for privacy. We are supporting Apple publicly and will be filing a friend of the court brief siding with them because it’s wrong for the government to conscript Apple or any company or coder to write and certify brand new code that they believe, rightly, will undermine security features that protect us all.
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Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that it supports Apple in its stance toward the government, and will also supply an amicus brief to show support.
But Apple’s conflict with the United States’ government quickly turned pro-privacy: Tech giants including Google, Facebook, Microsoft & Twitter are all lining up to support Apple in court. We’ve inquired with all parties for confirmation and will update this story should we hear back.
Even Microsoft founder Bill Gates finds the matter no easy call: He said a few days ago that the dispute may just involve “a particular case” in which Apple can only delay the inevitable – giving the government what it wants.
If its comments in the Brooklyn case are any guide, Apple may also argue that the All Writs Act shouldn’t apply at all. That response is due on Friday.
Apple by underlining the data security of its users has become the beacon around which civil liberty activists and data centric tech companies such as Google are rallying.
In the opinion of Apple, Microsoft and other tech companies, current laws are outdated and Congress needs to review the statutes. Amicus briefs are legal documents filed by non-litigants with strong interest in an appellate court case, for which they wish to provide additional information or arguments.
Apple’s iOS is in a constant war with Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows OS tries to compete with both. Some support the government’s efforts to track terrorists by any means necessary, while others wonder about the slippery slope created by federal officials having unfettered access to personal information.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp shares similar thoughts. WhatsApp chief Jan Koum stated via a Facebook post that, “We must not allow this risky precedent to be set”.
Some would say the core freedoms of speech, press and association, and the latest turn in the re-balancing of privacy against the needs of national security, are at stake at the dawn of the Digital Age. On the other side of the bench will be people such as James Comey, FBI Director and a man who has openly argued for the need for back doors into software such as Apple’s iOS.
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“This is not a case about one isolated iPhone”. These are hard battles to fight-we know, we’ve been fighting them for many years.
