“Two tech CEOs have come out in support of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s against a court order to unlock a San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone,” Jessica Hartogs and Aza Wee Sile report for CNBC. “In an open letter Wednesday, Cook wrote, ‘the government’s demands are chilling… We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country.'”
“A California federal judge ordered Apple on Tuesday to assist in the San Bernardino investigation by designing a new operating system to disable the feature that erases all contents after 10 failed passcode attempts,” Hartogs and Sile report. “This would allow the FBI to use as many permutations of passwords to unlock the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook. ”
Hartogs and Sile report, “While public opinion may be divided on whether Apple should unlock the terrorist’s iPhone, Google boss Sundar Pichai as well as Jan Koum, CEO of messaging service Whatsapp, are among those who have backed Apple’s decision.”
1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
2/5 We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
3/5 We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
4/5 But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
5/5 Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
Hartogs and Sile report, “Koum, a Facebook board member, wrote on the social media site, ‘I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple’s efforts to protect user data… We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google’s namby-pamby CEO is spineless and/or greedy.
It’s heartening to see strong support from WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum.
Apple should appeal this wrongheaded decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if need be.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
As per Google’s so-called “secure” products (which are designed to track users in order to serve them contextual advertising): Google’s me-too promise of encryption will take several years to roll out to a significant number of fragmandroid sufferers. (See: Me-too Google: Uh, okay, we’ll do default encryption like Apple, too (it’ll just take several years to roll out) – September 18, 2014)
Android 5.0 and 5.0 only comprise 35.3% of Android devices. The percentage of those are encrypted by default is far less than even that due to significant performance issues. Android 6.0, with full-disk encryption on by default, is only running 1.2% of Android devices!
With 17% running iOS 8 and 77% running iOS 9, 94% of Apple’s iOS devices are encrypted.
In other words, stop trying to equate Android with iOS by including Google’s efforts with Apple’s. Android is a bad joke, as usual.
SEE ALSO:
Why Apple is fighting back against U.S. federal government demands for iPhone access – February 17, 2016
Snowden backs Apple in fight over iPhone; blasts Google’s silence – February 17, 2016
Obama administration: We’re only demanding Apple hack just one iPhone – February 17, 2016
Security firm shows how Apple could bypass iPhone security to comply with FBI request – February 17, 2016
What the Apple court order means for your smartphone privacy – February 17, 2016
EFF opposes U.S. government demand to force Apple to unlock terrorist’s iPhone – February 17, 2016
‘Who do they think they are?’ Donald Trump blasts Apple for not unlocking San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone – February 17, 2016
Tim Cook posts open letter opposing U.S. government demands to bypass iPhone encryption – February 17, 2016
Apple CEO opposes court order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone – February 17, 2016
Apple wants judge to rule if it can be forced to unlock defendant’s iPhone – February 16, 2016
U.S. House lawmakers seek to outlaw states from banning encrypted iPhones – February 10, 2016
Obama administration wants access to smartphones – December 15, 2015
Obama administration’s calls for backdoors into encrypted communications echo Clinton-era key escrow fiasco – December 14, 2015
Donald Trump: To stop ISIS recruiting, maybe we should be talking to Bill Gates about ‘closing that Internet up in some way’ – December 8, 2015
Hillary Clinton: We need to put Silicon Valley tech firms to ‘work at disrupting ISIS’ – December 7, 2015