Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, is sticking to his guns against the court order telling him to provide access to cell phone records belonging to an alleged terrorist. Although there are good points on both sides of this issue, and Tim Cook’s arguments on and in defense of individuals’ rights to privacy are certainly nothing new, this could be one of those precedent-setting situations that will tip the scale no matter which direction it goes.
The actions of both the FBI and Tim Cook are opening water cooler discussions from the bottom to the top rungs of ladders everywhere. This is not the first time the “big government” vs “big corporations” debate has raged. In fact, Cook has been in this position before, arguing over privacy rights and encryption matters, holding firm, as he shared with NPR , to the ideal that “ privacy is a fundamental human right that people have.”
After Eric Snowden’s infamous whistleblowing about secrets gathering, issues were raised that were previously only hinted at by Big Brother. Not the television show, but the all-seeing eye in George Orwell’s 1984 . Tim Cook maintains he is not in the business of invading people’s privacy, though, and that what the FBI (and the courts) want Cook to do is akin to creating the “software equivalent of cancer.”
The background story is that last December, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, planned and executed an attack in a San Bernardino, California business, killing 14 people and injuring 22 others. The shooters ran but were later killed during a shootout with police.
The FBI has acquired much information already. Both the Bureau and Cook acknowledge Cook has complied with requests up until now, but the FBI still needs more and wants Tim Cook to furnish a way for them to access data they haven’t been able to access yet from Farook’s phone to see if there is information about who Farook and his accomplice may have been working with, or if there were any other attacks planned.
Tim Cook thinks that is opening a Pandora’s box of a precedent. What if this happens again? What if another terrorist commits another heinous act and the FBI needs access to information again?
As many know that’s likely to happen again, what do can be done about it?
Tim Cook explains the situation somewhat dramatically, that by creating the desired software – which is what would be required, writing software that does not exist as a “back door” into the system – it is playing with fire. Cook mentions future possibilities such as the court asking Apple (or any company) to write software involving surveillance or camera systems. Cook also repeats his worry that having this software written and in existence exposes millions of current iPhone customers’ data to prying eyes.
Tim Cook says he’ll take the #AppleVsFBI case “all the way” to the Supreme Court https://t.co/as4AcyQIlU pic.twitter.com/xwYDZjsa1B
— @[email protected] (@AnonyOps) February 25, 2016
The FBI, however, is adamant that it only wants access to this specific phone. It wants to be able to have as many attempts as possible to figure out the phone’s passcode without getting to the Apple maximum (for security purposes) of 10 tries, and having data erased. It seems it would have been much easier to access the contents of the phone, without assistance from Tim Cook or Apple, had someone not reset the password when they got it, barring access from the iCloud at the beginning of their search.
Even though the FBI continues to maintain what they want done is specifically for this one phone, in this one situation, and that Apple could maintain the phone in its possession, Tim Cook is sticking to his decision. As Cook told ABC’s David Muir, “…our job is to protect our customers .”
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
