Allies in Apple’s FBI fight collect data
Privacy advocates have long complained about practices of big tech companies
PALO ALTO, Calif. — In its fight with the FBI, Apple insists it’s defending the privacy and safety of all iPhone users by resisting government calls to help unlock a killer’s iPhone. And now other big tech companies such as Google and Facebook are rallying to Apple’s side.
Some, including Apple, have argued before that Apple’s allies are hypocrites when it comes to privacy. Apple has previously criticized those companies by saying that they exploit users’ personal information — to sell ads — and effectively endanger the users’ privacy.
But Silicon Valley’s view of privacy is more nuanced than that. And Americans in the past have worried less about the private sector and more about the government’s power to infringe on individual rights.
The FBI has said it’s only asking for narrow technical assistance in bypassing security features on a phone used by one of the shooters who killed 14 people in San Bernardino.
“We couldn’t look the survivors in the eye if we did not follow this lead,” FBI Director James Comey said online.
Apple has contended that a magistrate’s order would force it to create software that will make other iPhones vulnerable to future hacking by authorities and criminals. Leading tech companies including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft said they’ll file legal arguments in support of Apple’s position.
The same companies objected after former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed the scope of National Security Agency surveillance programs that collected user data and even tapped their networks without their knowledge.
The companies have gone to court and to Congress to limit that kind of government data gathering, while also fighting attempts to weaken the encryption codes that shield phone text messages.
Yet privacy advocates have long complained that those companies reap billions of dollars by collecting all kinds of personal information, including records of customers’ online behavior,
and using it to target them for advertising.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has leveled jabs at his competitors, boasting that Apple doesn’t rely on ad revenue for most of its services.
As he’s said more than once: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.”
But even Apple collects some customer information. Experts said it’s not clear if Apple’s privacy stance is a big selling point for most consumers.
Companies like Google and Facebook argue that they take pains to protect the data they collect. Facebook, for example, tracks users’ likes and actions so the company can show them ads targeted to people with similar characteristics. But Facebook has said it doesn’t give advertisers access to information linked to any individual by name.
Internet companies operate differently from traditional data brokers such as credit bureaus, which make their money by selling all kinds of information on individuals — from their incomes and bill-paying histories to where they’ve lived and worked.
“Google does not sell your personal information,” Rachel Whetstone, then a senior vice president for the giant Internet company, said in a speech last year. “Nor do we share it without your permission except in very limited circumstances,” such as when faced with a court-issued warrant.
Like Facebook, Google said it pushes back against government requests that seem unwarranted or overbroad.
By contrast with Google’s business, Whetstone said, government surveillance often involves data “collected for an entirely separate purpose,” usually from people who didn’t expect it would be seen by authorities. She said Google gives users the ability to limit the collection of their data.
Whetstone was speaking in Europe, where many national governments have strong privacy laws that restrict what businesses can do with individuals’ data.
“The American view is we need protection from the government misusing information, rather than we need the government to protect us from other people misusing our information,” said Larry Downs, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy.
Still, some privacy advocates said the iPhone dispute underscores their worries about data collection.
Consumers should realize that any information they give to companies could one day be sought by the government, said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“I’m glad these companies are coming together to support Apple,” she said. “
It ultimately may raise some hard questions for them about how much information they need to collect and how they secure it, and how long they keep it.”