Is governments back-door a hackers front door?
AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) At first it wasnt entirely clear how Silicon Valley privacy advocates or the nations elected officials would line up in the locked iPhone battle one of the biggest and most complex national-security stories since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the U.S. governments surveillance activities. But Apples 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.
The federal U.S. government has said Apples refusal to help unlocking the phone used by a suspected terrorist appears to be based on its concern for its business model and its public brand marketing strategy. But the company is also clearly at risk in the court of public opinion where terrorism fears rival or surpass privacy concerns for many.
Yet while the American public initially appeared divided on whether Apple is doing the right thing
a new survey by Ipsos for Reuters casts doubt on Pews findings. The Ipsos poll released Wednesday says 46 of respondents agree with Apple in its well-publicized fight with the FBI. More than one in three -- 35 -- disagree with Apple and 18 arent sure of their position. The results are from an online survey of 1500 people.
A large majority of respondents (69) said they would not give up email privacy -- even to help assist in thwarting terrorism; an even larger proportion (75) said they would not give up text-message privacy to help thwart terrorism.
More than half of respondents (55) said they believed the government would spy on iPhone users once it had the software to do so.
Apple on Thursday filed a motion to vacate an order that would force it to cooperate with the governments effort to access a phone used by one of the San Bernardino Calif. shooters in December.
Given the given the governments boundless interpretation of the All Writs Act it is hard to conceive of any limits on the orders the government could obtain in the future
the company writes in a motion filed earlier this week in the high-stakes battle.
In short the government wants to compel Apple to create a crippled and insecure product. Once the process is created it provides an avenue for criminals and foreign agents to access millions of iPhones.
And once developed for our government it is only a matter of time before foreign governments demand the same tool.
Then also on Thursday speaking during Congressional testimony Microsoft President Brad Smith said it would file a friend of the court brief in Apples support.
Google Facebook and Twitter will also take Apples side according to reports by The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. And Amazon told BuzzFeed that it was working on amicus brief options.
The deadline to file a friend of the court brief is March 3 so its possible that more tech companies still will join in support.
At first other companies were relatively quiet on the subject. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai quickly both stated their support for Apple. Mr Zuckerberg reiterated that support in a keynote at Mobile World Congress earlier this week.
And getting more official support from other tech companies could help Apples cause. On the other hand it could also drive the wedge deeper between Silicon Valley and middle America particularly for citizens who believe the U.S. should be doing more to combat terrorism.
For its part Apple says the All Writs Act does not grant the courts free-wheeling authority to change the substantive law or exercise new powers that Congress has not afforded them. Adding
Congress has never authorized judges to compel innocent third parties to provide decryption services to the FBI.
While the polling results are worth noting ultimately it is up to the courts to decide whether to force Apple to create software that could enable hacking. If so the technique almost certainly will be used by authorities on other phones. Already
the FBI has reportedly asked judges around the country to order Apple to help access iPhones or iPads on at least 15 occasions since last October. Those requests are currently pending in seven different federal courts
The apple iPhone matter is slated for a hearing on March 22.
