Main rivals join forces to support Apple in FBI fight

WASHINGTON: A broad array of technology firms and activists joined Apple Inc’s legal fight over encryption on Thursday, warning of a dangerous precedent if the company is forced to help the government break into a locked iPhone.

Three tech associations representing Apple’s main business rivals — including Google Inc, Facebook Inc, Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc — announced a joint brief supporting Apple’s efforts to challenge an order that would require it to help unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.

“If the government arguments prevail, t he internet ecosystem will be weakened, leaving internet users more vulnerable to hackers and other bad actors,” said a statement from the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which announced a joint amicus brief with the Internet Association and the i2Coalition of internet infrastructure firms.

The three associations said their brief was set to be filed before the midnight deadline in federal court in California, where the case is being heard.

A number of other companies and associations are also expected to file briefs in the case, which has divided the American public and set off a highly charged debate about what limits should be placed on law enforcement access to digital devices.

“There is broad and deep concern throughout many types of companies throughout the tech industry that there is a potentially dangerous precedent in this case,” said Ed Black, president and chief executive of CCIA.

A joint filing was being prepared by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Snapchat, Evernote and Mozilla, according to Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal officer for Mozilla Corporation.

“Tech companies should aspire to build ‘unhackable’ products,” she said in a blog post. “With this precedent, we could all be told not to build secure products in the first place.”

The case stems from the FBI’s efforts to access the locked iPhone used by one of the perpetrators of the December attack in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people.

Apple has argued that the only way to unlock the phone would be to introduce a weakened operating system, which could potentially leak out and be exploited by hackers and foreign governments.

The FBI has argued that by introducing encryption that can lock data, making it accessible only to the user, Apple and others are essentially creating “warrantproof zones” for criminals and others that will cripple law enforcement and jeopardise public safety.

The CCIA includes Apple rivals such as Amazon.com Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and the Internet Association counts as members Dropbox, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook. Some firms are members of both, such as Google, which is also part of the i2Coalition.

Twitter meanwhile filed another legal brief supporting Apple, together with 16 other tech firms including eBay, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Reddit.

“The government seeks unbounded authority to compel Apple to design software that does not currently exist and that will circumvent and undermine security measures intended to protect its users’ data,” the brief said.

“This could set a precedent that could be used in future cases to require (other tech firms) to provide technical assistance in a manner that undermines the very products they offer.”

Intel Corp announced its own legal filing supporting Apple, saying that it would be “an unprecedented step for the government to require a company to develop technology that weakens security in a commercial product.”

“Such a move chills innovation,” the chipmaker said in a statement.

AT&T Inc joined the effort as well, saying the order expands law enforcement authority.

“Only Congress can address these issues in a sufficiently comprehensive, uniform, and fair manner,” it said.