The Obama Administration has flirted with Silicon Valley for more than eight years. But it has never invited privacy to the ball. On the contrary.
The latest sortie — and I use the language of war deliberately — is DOJ v Apple. The ostensible enemy: domestic terrorists. (Fully engaging the chief fear-mongering meme of America’s political right.)
Early headlines misrepresented the nature of the battle.
This is not a simple case of “please unlock this phone” belonging to a man accused of mass murder. In an open letter, Tim Cook writes:
But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
The technical changes the @FBI demands would make it possible to break into an iPhone (5C or older) in a half hour. pic.twitter.com/v6GeFXXXBC
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 17, 2016
Gizmodo puts the demand in an analog context:
… if the FBI comes across a safe in that house, the warrant and permission do not mean it can force the company that manufactures the safe to create a special tool for opening its safes, especially a tool that would make other safes completely useless as secure storage. That’s the situation that Apple’s dealing with here.
See the lie that this is about “one device“?
If DOJ get what they want in this Apple case, imagine the surveillance assistance they'll be able to force from Internet of Things companies
— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) February 17, 2016
As Cook said in the opening of his letter: “This moment calls for public discussion.” The question is not “can” Apple do this but “should” Apple do this.
CEO of Google giving qualified—but real—support to Apple's pro-security position https://t.co/YLdcxQLEVh
— Parker Higgins (@xor) February 17, 2016
Apple CEO – one of the few people on Earth with the $ to fight the DoJ – announces that he will. ?????? https://t.co/E2rKXFK1QA
— Jennifer Bukowsky (@esqonfire) February 17, 2016
It’s long past time for a public discussion, especially given the support politicians from left and right have given the Administration.
The unbelievable legal basis for the Administration’s logic is the All Writs Act, a “catchall statute” from the Judiciary Act of 1789.
FBI request to Apple is bad for Americans’ online safety & security, could empower repressive regimes #NoBackdoors pic.twitter.com/97cXeDK1su
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 17, 2016
See how important that vacant Supreme Court justice seat is now?
Source: Tim Cook photo, Flickr CC.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com