“Apple Inc.’s newly hired outside lawyer, in his first remarks on a U.S. court order requiring the company to help unlock the iPhone of a dead terrorist, said the move could imperil the privacy of millions of people around the world,” Miles Weiss reports for Bloomberg
“Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, a partner with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ program that the order would open a ‘Pandora’s box’ of privacy issues,” Weiss reports. “‘This is not just one magistrate in San Bernardino,’ said Olson, 75, whose wife died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. ‘There are hundreds of magistrates, there are hundreds of other courts.'”
“Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook posted a letter on Apple’s website last week saying that the directive would create a dangerous precedent that could ultimately require the company to build software to help governments intercept private e-mails and access private health records,” Weiss reports. “While Olson has spent most of his career at Gibson Dunn, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney general in the 1980s and was the U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush. He also served on the President’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008. ‘The implications of this are quite serious,’ Olson said of the court order. ‘People in foreign countries are going to be very, very susceptible to invasions of their privacy if Apple can be forced to change its phone.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The day the U.S. government can force anybody to write something is the day the United States of America as we know it dies.
If this keeps up, you won’t need to build a wall. Nobody will want in.
Of course, Apple has in its power to render even these methods, should they be forced upon the company, moot with future iOS updates that protect user privacy from government overreach.
It would be nice, however, not to have to depend on a company to enforce U.S. Constitutional rights, but rather to have a government – made up of people who swear oaths to the Constitution, no less – that protects citizens’ Constitutional rights jealously instead of wiping their asses with the document daily.
SEE ALSO:
Apple posts open letter: ‘Answers to your questions about Apple and security’ – February 22, 2016
Apple vs. the U.S. government: Who elected Tim Cook? – February 21, 2016
Apple could easily lock rights-trampling governments out of future iPhones – February 20, 2016
Prediction: Apple will cave to U.S. government demand to crack open iPhone, Donald Trump will get the credit – February 20, 2016
Apple: Terrorist’s Apple ID password changed in government custody, blocking access – February 19, 2016
Petition asks Obama administration to stop demanding Apple create iPhone backdoor – February 19, 2016
Newspaper editorials back Apple over U.S. government 8 to 1 – February 19, 2016
Apple likely to invoke First Amendment free-speech rights in against U.S. government backdoor demands – February 19, 2016
Donald Trump calls for Apple boycott over San Bernardino terrorist iPhone encryption – February 19, 2016
Secret memo details U.S. government’s broader strategy to crack phones – February 19, 2016
DOJ escalates war against Apple, files new motion to compel company to break into iPhone – February 19, 2016
Apple is still fighting Big Brother – February 19, 2016
Apple co-founder Woz: Steve Jobs would have fought this U.S. government overreach, too – February 19, 2016
Mother who lost son in San Bernardino terrorist attack sides with Apple against U.S. government backdoor demands – February 19, 2016
iPhones don’t kill people, people kill people – February 19, 2016
Tim Cook posts open letter opposing U.S. government demands to bypass iPhone encryption – February 17, 2016