“‘Everybody agrees this is an important policy question,’ said Theodore Boutrous, an outside lawyer for Apple, in an interview Monday. He said Congress and the president should strike the balance between the privacy of citizens and the needs of law enforcement,” Daisuke Wakabayashi and Devlin Barrett report for Dow Jones Business News. “Apple is expected to file its official response to the government in court Friday.”
“Mr. Cook’s position on privacy and security — along with many of Apple’s senior executives — has hardened over time, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple has adopted more stringent security and encrypted more of its user data,” Wakabayashi and Barrett report. “Mr. Cook came to believe that privacy is a basic human right that Apple needs to support, these people said.”
“The soft-spoken Mr. Cook will refuse to budge on an issue if he feels that he is in the right, according to people who have worked with him. In a 2014 interview with Charlie Rose, Mr. Cook said ‘they would have to cart us out in a box before we would’ allow outsiders including the National Security Agency to create a ‘backdoor’ to access users’ personal data,” Wakabayashi and Barrett report. “Mr. Cook keeps pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy hanging in his office, because he respects their willingness to take principled–and sometimes unpopular–stands on important issues, he has said. During a 2013 speech at the United Nations, he quoted Mr. King saying “the time is always right to do what is right.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last October:
Too many people do not realize how lucky we are that Tim Cook is CEO of Apple Inc. No matter what else Cook does, as long as he holds his ground on this issue, he’s one of the greatest CEOs in history. We need and are lucky to have a man with a strong backbone to stand up to this constant pressure from misguided government spies who’re hell bent on running roughshod over the U.S. Constitution and U.S. citizens’ rights.
Furthermore, the friends and family members of the San Bernadino terrorism victims should be incensed that the U.S. federal government is using those tragic deaths in a despicable ploy to sway a confused portion of the public to support the trampling of their rights.
Those who wrongheadedly agree with these supercilious disingenuous government hacks need to realize that they are working to deliver EXACTLY WHAT THE TERRORISTS WANTED TO ACHIEVE WITH THEIR MURDEROUS RAMPAGE.
Don’t be blind. Don’t be stupid. Don’t be weak.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! – Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
SEE ALSO:
Rush Limbaugh: How the U.S. government bungled the handling of the San Bernardino iPhone – February 22, 2016
Security experts: The FBI’s iPhone-unlocking demand of Apple is risky – February 22, 2016
Pew survey: More than half of Americans think Apple should comply with FBI – February 22, 2016
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg backs Apple versus U.S. government in iPhone security dispute – February 22, 2016
Tim Cook’s memo to Apple employees: ‘This case is about more than a single phone’ – February 22, 2016
Snowden: FBI could hack San Bernardino iPhone without Apple’s involvement – February 22, 2016
Why did the FBI direct the San Bernardino Health Department to reset Syed Farook’s Apple ID? – February 22, 2016
Apple posts open letter: ‘Answers to your questions about Apple and security’ – February 22, 2016
Apple could easily lock rights-trampling governments out of future iPhones – February 20, 2016
Apple is still fighting Big Brother – February 19, 2016
Apple: Terrorist’s Apple ID password changed in government custody, blocking access – February 19, 2016