Sometimes you have to say no, even to the federal government.
This is the message Apple CEO Tim Cook sent to FBI investigators who asked the company to unlock an iPhone belonging to Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook who are accused of killing 14 people in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
Investigators want a so-called “back door” in Farook’s iPhone to access information about Farook and who he communicated with before the attack.
One concern the company has is the possibility the new technology would fall into the wrong hands.
“Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices,” Cook wrote in a letter to customers.
I can see the value in unlocking Farook’s phone. He is a known terrorist. But opening this phone creates a slippery slope. If Apple creates a back door into its products, other tech companies would be expected to do the same.
The Justice Department requested that Apple unlock at least nine other phones, according to The New York Times.
This is clearly not a one-time-only case.
Officials at Apple are justified in their decision. Creating a back door creates more security and privacy concerns than it answers. But Apple’s decision to defy the government is another marker of the changing relationship the public has with the government.
The most surprising thing about this situation is the way Republican presidential candidates responded. Republicans are supposed to support a smaller government with less overreach. Yet all of the Republican candidates besides John Kasich, R-Ohio, spoke out against Apple’s decision. Republican candidate Donald Trump, R-NY, demanded a boycott of Apple until they change their stance.
Don’t advocate for less government overreach and then expect a company to do everything the government asks, when citizens’ privacy is at stake.
I wonder if these candidates would be so quick to ask Apple to unlock the phone of a white person.
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