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Department of Justice employing ‘All Writs Act’ to compel Apple to bypass iPhone encryption

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As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the federal government is not a big fan of Apple’s decision to employ data protection measures on its iOS devices that prevent snooping on a customer’s private information, even taking its disapproval to ridiculous levels at times.

Today Ars Technica reports that federal authorities are now considering new ways to force Apple to bypass these protections to assist in criminal investigations.

The latest weapon in the Department of Justice’s war on privacy is the All Writs Act, which has enabled a federal court to order a company or individual to do just about anything to aid in a criminal investigation since 1789. That methodology is being employed in at least one case in California, where prosecutors want Apple’s help in getting to the data on a suspect’s iPhone.

The idea here is that a court can order Apple to employ “any capabilities it may have to unlock the phone,” according to court documents obtained by Ars. Stanford Law lecturer Johnathan Mayer added a bit more context to the story, noting that in the past, Google has agreed to comply with such orders, and Apple is almost certain to agree as well.

[tweet https://twitter.com/jonathanmayer/status/539497810551668736 align=’center’]

There are some limits on the All Writs Act, though. For example, it can only come into play if there isn’t a law that stops it from being employed (if mowing your lawn was illegal, a federal court couldn’t issue a writ forcing you to mow your lawn, for example). Use of the All Writs act must be justifiable as part of an investigation, and can only be used to compel those who are actually involved in the case.

So while the All Writs Act doesn’t provide the courts total authority, it can be used to compel Apple or other smartphone companies to decrypt data (to the best of their abilities) as part of a criminal investigation.

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Comments

  1. Lee (@leemahi) - 9 years ago

    Fuck the police that’s how I treat em. We buy our way out of jail but we can’t buy freedom.

  2. Coconut (@not_coconut) - 9 years ago

    I thought the whole point of Apple’s new system is that they were technically unable to decrypt the phone. I don’t see how any arm twisting from DOJ would make a difference.

  3. Winski - 9 years ago

    If you are a student of history, you’ll find that these tactics are EXACTLY rhe same as Hitler employed in the early days of his little gathering in Germany early last century. Given the number of hold overs from the Cheney faction that stayed in the FBI with Comey, and the bunkers the rest of the intelligence community has built up, with black money that the right wing hate machine has pitched in to create their Brown Boot Squads…

    The tech industry has beat them again with brains…. Now Comey is trying to best them with hate, black money, prejudice and arcane colonial law…. Their time is growing short.

    • therazorpit - 9 years ago

      You might be a student of history but its an altered history. Hitler was on the left, not right.

      You stated there were a number of hold overs from the Cheney faction in the FBI, how many of them date back to the Clinton faction? Apparently everything was perfect before Cheney? Ask Gingrich about how secure cell phone calls were back when “a sweet innocent couple just happened to be in the middle of nowhere in their car, with a police scanner and recording equipment.”

      You completely left out all the issues with the IRS and their attempt to silence people opposed to the current president because they don’t agree with his policies. No one represents Brown Boot Squads more than the community organizer now in the White House. Any coincidence that Hitler started out as a community organizer as well?

      Big government is bad. Doesn’t matter if it comes from the “right” or “left”. The sooner you realize that the better off you’ll be…

      • Leif Paul Ashley - 9 years ago

        I second that one. At the very least, it should require a court order from a judge… some of these tactics don’t even include that.

  4. What’s up with the signal on that iPhone? Did apple experiment with different shapes during the dev preview before they settled on dots?

  5. eklisiarh - 9 years ago

    This is just a big charade which government is playing. Of course they can bypass iPhone encryption now and Apple probably made sure of that… they just want us to feel safe again after Snowden told us what they are doing.

  6. Your site, and Ars are a week late in reporting this “news”

    Regardless, this “newest” scheme, using a 200 year old law, isn’t going to work and its use will be struck down sooner rather than later.

    • Cortland Richmond - 9 years ago

      OK. *Why* isn’t it going to work?

    • djfriar - 9 years ago

      Ars is rarely first on reporting these kind of things because they actually fact check before posting and that takes time. Its one of the more refreshing things about them.

  7. Dan (@danmdan) - 9 years ago

    BIG BROTHER is watching YOU !