Tim Cook Pushes Back Against FBI, Court Order To Unlock San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone
2 min read
Today is a very important day in the world of tech. Today, Apple CEO Tim Cook published an open letter to Apple customers and essentially to the entire tech community, informing us that Apple intends to deny the court ordered junction levied against them. In this court order, Apple would be essentially forced to create a backdoor way to bypass encryption and essentially allow your pass code to be solved using a complex computer algorithm. The FBI is in dire need of Apple’s help to create a way around their security so they can access data files of one of the shooters involved in the San Bernardino case, and in the process creating a very dangerous precedent.
So why is this important? It’s quite simple, while being incredibly complex at the same time. While the government maintains that this backdoor could be and would be used one time, just for this case, we all know that wouldn’t be true. Apple argues that once this happens there would essentially be no checks or restrictions in place to keep the government from peeking into your phone at any given time, without restraint. Basically, creating a souped up version of the Patriot Act, with a more massive reach than ever before.
Apple maintains that by creating this backdoor into Apple’s OS, the government will essentially have one big master-key that they could use in any case, at any time. Meaning no matter what type of device you have, if government officials feel the need to peek into your device, they only need to cite THIS CASE to do so. The FBI is doing this by citing the Writs Act of 1789, a Judiciary Act that allows them, with the help of the US Court systems to expand their authority and bypass the standard “search and seizure” procedures. In a nutshell, they want in… With or without Apple’s cooperation.
So, Apple has taken to the public to let their customers as well as anybody who has a smartphone know, that they intend to fight this court order. The precedent that this could potentially set, is a particularly dangerous one, especially considering how digital our lives are becoming. Imagine someone being able to tap into your personal emails, phone data, health data and records, financial data, or constantly track your location without just cause. If that doesn’t frighten you, it should. It could become a very real thing, very soon. I for one, agree with and support Apple’s decision and hopefully they come out on top of this. Unfortunately, if they don’t, the idea of privacy will suffer a fatal blow that I’m afraid it can never recover from.
Read Tim Cook’s Letter at the link below:
