Tech giants Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft are joining forces to file an unsolicited amicus brief on behalf of Apple which is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a court order to break the encryption on the iPhone.
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“This isn’t a case about one isolated iPhone”.
Apple has pushed back against the government which is controversially compelling them to create a version of iOS which will allows the government to hack into the phone of the San Bernardino shooter.
Twitter will also be seen supporting Apple in motion though it is unclear if it will join the combined filing.
Apple’s Tim Cook says that the iPhone encryption debate should shift the debate over national security and privacy to Capitol Hill. However, a number of others, most notably Dell, HP, IBM and Oracle, to name but a few, have skirted the issue, even though the results of the quarrel clearly will resonate to their technologies. The company even compared the order to a pharma firm being forced to produce lethal injection drugs or a journalist who plants a false story in order to help lure out a fugitive.
Smith added that Microsoft supports Apple’s legal stance and will be filing an amicus brief next week.
In Apple’s conflict with the US over a locked iPhone, Apple will not shoulder the entire brand risk itself: Tech powers including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter are all lining up to support Apple in court. Similar briefs are also expected to be filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Amnesty International. Apple has asked its tech peers to stand behind the organisation. In its motion to dismiss the court order, Apple’s manager of user privacy describes that hypothetical software as “GovtOS” – a special operating system for the government that Apple would not make under any other circumstances.
The CEO of Google, for example, put out a series of carefully worded tweets acknowledging the importance of Apple’s fight, while stopping short of a full endorsement.
It’s easy to think that you would not agree with Apple, because in this case it’s people trying to access the phone of some murderers. The judiciary committee hearing is likely to be the first of several congressional oversight opportunities.
The deadline to file a friend of the court brief is March 3, and Apple executives expect robust support from technology companies and privacy groups who have taken an intense interest in the outcome of the case.
The company says that it has already dedicated “substantial resources” to helping the FBI investigate the San Bernardino shootings, but that this request goes too far.
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Amazon, mostly silent on the issue to date, is also reportedly joining the rush to Apple’s defense, according to a report from BuzzFeed.
