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Civil rights groups and tech companies express support for Apple’s stand against the FBI

tim-cook-privacy

Civil rights organizations have expressed strong support for Apple’s resistance to a court order instructing it to create special firmware that would allow the FBI to break into an iPhone – with tech companies doing the same, albeit in a weaker fashion.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted a statement in which it said that it applauded Apple for standing up for the rights of its customers, and would be making its views known to the court.

Essentially, the government is asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a single phone. And once that master key is created, we’re certain that our government will ask for it again and again, for other phones, and turn this power against any software or device that has the audacity to offer strong security […]

EFF applauds Apple for standing up for real security and the rights of its customers. We have been fighting to protect encryption, and stop backdoors, for over 20 years. That’s why EFF plans to file an amicus brief in support of Apple’s position.

The Verge notes similar support from both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International …

ACLU staff attorney Alex Abdo said that the court order was unconstitutional, and Apple deserved praise for its stance.

This is an unprecedented, unwise, and unlawful move by the government. The Constitution does not permit the government to force companies to hack into their customers’ devices. […] Apple deserves praise for standing up for its right to offer secure devices to all of its customers.

Amnesty’s Deputy Director of Global Issues Sherif Elsayed-Ali echoed the widespread view that the case would set a dangerous precedent.

Apple is right to fight back in this case: the FBI’s request, which would in practice require Apple to rewrite its operating system to weaken security protections, would set a very dangerous precedent. Such backdoors undermine everyone’s security and threaten our right to privacy.

Unsurprisingly, Edward Snowden also tweeted his support for Apple, describing it as “the most important tech case in a decade” and quoting NYT piece that argued that if the US government was allowed to access iPhones, the Chinese government would demand the same.

I noted yesterday that other tech giants had remained quiet, but a number of them have since voiced their support for Apple’s stance – though as we noted on 9to5google, not always in the most unequivocal of terms.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted a series of five tweets in which he said the case could set “a troubling precedent.”

Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy. We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism. We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders. But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent. Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue.

Microsoft chose not to issue a statement directly, but instead quoted a statement on the Reform Government Surveillance website, an organization of which the company is a member.

Reform Government Surveillance companies believe it is extremely important to deter terrorists and criminals and to help law enforcement by processing legal orders for information in order to keep us all safe. But technology companies should not be required to build in backdoors to the technologies that keep their users’ information secure. RGS companies remain committed to providing law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers’ information.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum, however, used stronger language in a Facebook post in support of Apple.

I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple’s efforts to protect user data and couldn’t agree more with everything said in their Customer Letter today. We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake.

A clear majority of 9to5Mac readers also support Apple’s stance. Some 86% of you said that Apple should maintain its current position, while 11% felt the company should cooperate with the FBI and 3% were indifferent. This is down from the 93% support expressed prior to the San Bernardino shootings and subsequent court order, but this is not surprising – we of course always feel sympathy for the victims and loved ones of specific attacks. But, as the old saying has it, hard cases make for bad law.

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Comments

  1. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    Google should did a letter or press release instead of some tweets. If you are going to stand behind someone give them full support not half assed like these tech companies are doing.

  2. 89p13 - 8 years ago

    And so many of the “pro-FBI” postings on the various threads are using the same “straw man” arguments of, “what if it were your kids, family” argument. Makes me think that some “Government” workers haunt the hall’s of 9 to 5 readers.

    Stand firm, Apple! Protect out rights to privacy!

    • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

      I think it’s just people who still live in that world where there’s good guys and bad guys and the government is always the good guys because terrorists and who would build the roads.

  3. 89p13 - 8 years ago

    And I do have sort of an open answer for the various posters in the last opinion thread – specifically yojimbo007, Larz Ulrich, pdixon1986, who posted many of the Straw Man discussions: Ready:

    (1) Set your pass code to 0000 or (2) Put a big label on the back of your iPhone with your pass code written on it.

    Unsafe, you say; what if you lose your phone and some “crook” finds it? It’ll be about as secure as it will be if Apple has to write a program to prevent your phone from auto-wiping in a brute force attack!

    YMMV!

  4. iSRS - 8 years ago

    Here is the thing about the 11%. I bet half of them think Apple is doing NOTHING to cooperate with the FBI. If they knew the full extent of the help that Apple is already giving, I bet they would feel better with Apple’s opposition.

    Most people are seeing all the heavily slanted against Apple headlines like “Why is Tim Cook so angry at the government?” and that is all they know about. They don’t bother to read beyond 140-160 characters.

    Now that all these other companies are standing behind Apple, people may start to give Apple the credit they deserve.

    I will be sharing the heck out of lists of those supporting Apple. People need to know the truth.

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      “People need to know the truth.”

      And, share that truth, so that we don’t end up blindsided like many in the German population in the 1930s – When the Government said one thing and proceeded to do something else!

      Freedom lives in the light while tyranny multiplies in the dark.

  5. sparklehedgehog - 8 years ago

    OK first off i don’t agree with what the US courts are doing or the governments stance on this issue, i actually agree with the tech companies

    HOWEVER

    NO company can be above the law, ever! That opens up the biggest can of worms you can’t even possibly imagine! The law must be enforced to all with no exceptions otherwise you don’t have a law!

    Complex issue long term this one and will interesting to see how this pans out

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      Apple isn’t saying they are above the law. They are using that same legal system (the one the FBI is abusing) to fight for what they (and many) believe is right.

      To just accept a bad law is un-American.

      Imagine if we just accepted that blacks should be slaves, or to be counted as 2/3 of a person, or that women didn’t have the right to vote. Just because this is being used in the name of the “fight on terror” doesn’t make it right. Falling to those hyperbolic cries by our government makes us complicit in allowing the government to do what ever it wants – something that goes against the very fabric of who we are as a nation.

    • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

      And the law is not equivalent to ethics; the law is a viewpoint, the law can be wrong, and because it’s a tool of force, it often is. Check the premises of your statement.

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      And, if go to the Apple web site – the open letter starts off with:

      “This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.”

      Apple is not refusing to do anything – they are just calling for Public Transparency and wanting to shed light onto what the Judicial system has ordered.

      IMO – this court order is just another Government PR stunt to give the Government what it really wants – Crippled Encryption on all iOS devices.

      The phone actually belongs to the Employer – it was the Terrorist’s Work Supplied Phone. Shame on them for not setting their own passcode!

  6. It would be instructive for a careful explanation as to how the 70 times Apple *has* complied with goverment requests about access to a device is uniquely different in this case and should be refused. I’m not writing that to be some kind of spoiler, but clarification would be extremely helpfull for those interested in the subject without needing any self-righteous hyperbole.

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      Apple HAS and CONTINUES to provide what they can in this case, as they have with others. What they are fighting is the requirement to build a new version of iOS for “just this” phone – and the FBI is using a law from 1794 as it’s grounds. You know, when the US was 18 years old, there were 15 states in the Union, and George Washington was POTUS. Just for a point of reference.

  7. vandiced - 8 years ago

    How rich if Snowden to support Apple’s position on keeping customer information private. He leaked information making it not private? Yea yea “circumstances”. Still one of the least appropriate to have an opinion.

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      Really – REALLY – That’s your opinion? Snowden risked his life and is in exile because he revealed just how much our Government was, is and will continue to illegally spy on its own citizens.

      IF you are a US Citizen – I think you should TRY to look at things objectively and reevaluate your views. Or, just continue to stick your head in the sand and ignore how many of your rights, granted under both the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, have been taken away while you’ve not been paying attention.

      If you’re not a US Citizen, but a citizen of a democratic society, you have vested rights in the outcome of both Snowden and this situation.

      If you’re just a troll . . .

  8. yojimbo007 - 8 years ago

    Unlocking a phone by a court order is not the same as a back door…. Or conpromising an activly encrypted phone when in use.

    Plus

    Government can search my home with the proper court order. The most privet place to me .
    Government can tap my land line with court order. And has for decades with proper court order.
    Government can confiscate my computets with proper court order and search the HD… ( iphone is a pocket computer )

    This is not an either or case …… Its way more complex and consequential to just leave it in hands of dogmatic idealism .

    Creat the proper provisions and everyone wins.

    Times changes… so should we… … Thats fundimental to survival.

    In the meanwhile apple is loving the Publicity .. ;)……. It may even all be by design …..(. After all its months we have been screaming for apple PR to wake up)..lol

    Ps… Too much paranoia , and self centereness and Naïveté …. Too much…

  9. Thomas Marble Peak - 8 years ago

    “We the People” petition has started over at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/apple-privacy-petition

  10. mytawalbeh - 8 years ago

    Let me call the “vigilante” to shut up the FBI detectives .. ^_^

  11. Roman Hawke - 8 years ago

    Oh the precedents. Yet no one wants to admit that apple will be setting a precedent in that it will be the platform of choice for all terrorists, and murderers and law breakers. Stand with apple and stand against America. Yes, its that simple, your privacy is not at stake here and never was. This is a PR stunt to the last letter. Cook needs to be arrested and thrown in jail. Apple will lose the fight and the government will force them and in my eyes, apple should be forever known as the company who stood with the terrorists.

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      You are, of course, welcome and free to your opinion, as are we all.

      But the issue is not “your privacy is not at stake here and never was,” as you state, but the fact that it could be, and not by some legal entity.

      Make encryption illegal, and only the criminals will have encryption. Weaken encryption to allow the government in, and anyone who wants to can get in.

      In every situation where governments seek to ban or weaken something, the only people they are hurting are the law abiding citizens. Criminals don’t care about the law in the first place. So weakening encryption/security to hurt the “bad guys” won’t hurt them at all. It will only hurt the rest of us.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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