Since Apple is not a utility, and because Congress declined to force companies like Apple to build “backdoors” into their products, Apple said it should not be forced to help the government hack into the San Bernardino iPhone. Apple has backed Microsoft in that case, which is waiting on the ruling of an appellate court in NY.
Advertisement
But Silicon Valley’s view of privacy is more nuanced than that.
“The government can put me in jail”, said Larry Downs, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy.
Don’t forget to follow Brett on Facebook and Twitter!
Apple also raised the specter of courts ordering it to help in other cases in other ways, such as writing computer code that would turn on an iPhone microphone to help surveillance.
The filing was made the same day that FBI Director James Comey defended the government’s approach during separate appearances on Capitol Hill, where he stressed that the agency was seeking specialized software for only one phone as part of an investigation into an act of terror that left 14 dead. “By forcing Apple to write software that would undermine those values, the government seeks to compel Apple’s speech and to force Apple to express the government’s viewpoint on security and privacy instead of its own”, the motion reads. Facebook said it will join with Google, Twitter and Microsoft on a joint court filing.
“This is a much larger debate than just unlocking one phone”, Hurd tells CNBS. “But rather than pursue new legislation, the government backed away from Congress and turned to the courts”, it added.
Apple CEO Tim Cook again took to the airwaves to stir up support for Apple’s cause, appearing in an interview yesterday on ABC. As he’s said a few times: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer”.
The move would mean the the iPhone is unhackable, even by Apple. “And I believe that Apple is making an important point that, in fact, connects directly with the kinds of issues that are being considered by this hearing today”. That’s is not true, the company argued. “It is no different should if anybody has ever been able to tell the phone company to get information, bank records should anybody come asking for bank records”, Gates says.
Advertisement
Google was the first tech giant to publicly raise support for Apple when the case broke last week. “Nor do we share it without your permission except in very limited circumstances”, such as when faced with a court-issued warrant. “This is a stunning overreach of the FBI to demand that a private company create a new operating system with a “swinging door” that the federal government can enter and exit without any rules whatsoever, whenever they wish”.
