Apple vs. the FBI — Do You Agree With Apple? [POLL]
An interesting debate is happening in America and it revolves around privacy and terrorism. The FBI and Justice Department are attempting to get into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
The problem is that if the FBI enters the wrong password ten times, the contents of the phone will be erased according to the Washington Post:
Tech giant Apple and the FBI appeared headed for a deepening confrontation Wednesday after the company’s chief pledged to fight federal demands to help mine data from an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December’s terrorist attacks in San Bernardino.
The clash reflects wider debates in the United States and elsewhere over security measures used by companies to protect users of devices such as smartphones — and how much leverage authorities should have to gain special access.
“We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a strongly worded open letter posted late Tuesday on the company’s website.
“Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them,” it continued. “But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.”
Apple says they can't "hack" into any phone. A judge on Wednesday, though, said Apple could write new software that would disable the security feature. Apple argues that if that move is done, it would weaken everyone's phones:
The FBI’s efforts may show how impervious the new technology is to efforts to circumvent it. According to industry officials, Apple cannot unilaterally dismantle or override the 10-tries-and-wipe feature. Only the user or person who controls the phone’s settings can do so.
However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym said in her order, Apple can write software that can bypass the feature. Federal prosecutors stated in a memo accompanying the order that the software would affect only the seized phone.
In the statement , Cook said such a step would dangerously weaken iPhone security.
“Once created,” he wrote, “the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”
The Apple CEO said that “opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.”
Is Apple making the right stand here? Or should they give into the government's demands?