Apple’s good fight
Apple chief Tim Cook is right to resist FBI demands that his firm devise a “backdoor” to the iPhone. This public standoff between one of the world’s biggest corporations and the federal government involves more than a search for possible criminal leads inside the iPhone of one of the San Bernardi- no terrorists.
Cook vowed last week to appeal a court order that his company hack its own product to assist that FBI probe.
“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone,” Cook wrote in a letter to Apple customers. “But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices.”
Cook thus reignited a critical national debate over privacy rights in the digital era.
Most of us, after all, spend an ungodly amount of time on our smartphones each day and we store astonishing amounts of intimate information on them. Which is why privacy advocates rallied outside some 50 Apple stores nationwide Tuesday in solidarity with the company.
Those protesters fully understand Apple is no white-knight corporation. The firm is notorious for using Chinese suppliers who severely exploit production workers. Its evasion of federal taxes by stashing billions of dollars in profits overseas remains indefensible.
“But this is about so much more than Apple,” says Evan Greer, of Fight for the Future, one of the privacy groups that organized Tuesday’s rallies.
Jackie Sheeler, 58, was among a dozen protesters who braved a pouring rain outside Apple’s Fifth Ave. store.
“I’m against terrorism, but this isn’t how you fight it,” said Sheeler, a former supervisor at Yahoo.
Following revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden of massive secret data collection by the federal government most privacy experts became convinced that only strong encryption technology can protect the data of ordinary citizens from unwarranted intrusion.
Technology companies rushed to assure their customers that they would better protect their information. Nearly two years ago, Apple started releasing new iPhone operating systems that allow customers to shield their information even from the company, though any data backed up to Apple’s iCloud can still be turned over to the government through a court subpoena.
That’s why this conflict between Apple and the FBI has ramifications far beyond our borders.
“Authoritarian regimes around the world are salivating at the prospect of the FBI winning this order,” Nate Cardozo of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation said. “If Apple creates the master key that the FBI has demanded . . . governments around the world are going to be demanding the same access.”
Even retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and the NSA, has questioned whether the FBI is overreaching.
“(FBI director) Jim (Comey) would like a backdoor available to American law enforcement in all devices globally,” Hayden told USA Today. “And, frankly, I think on balance that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim’s job a bit easier in some specific circumstances.”
So until this debate gets resolved in court, keep your iPhones locked.