“It is a battle for public opinion almost as much as it is for the law,” David Pierson and Paresh Dave report for The Los Angeles Times. “nd in Apple Inc., the government faces a formidable corporate foe — an iconic American brand that merely has to stand up for privacy to keep the reputation of its products intact. If the company loses in court, chances are it’s still business as usual for the iPhone.”
“For the government, the stakes are higher. It has chosen the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook to make its long-held case that airtight consumer electronics are undermining national security,” Pierson and Dave report. “A loss in court would likely widen the gap between technology and law enforcement, making its job that much harder at a time when Silicon Valley and Washington have struggled to see eye-to-eye.”
“‘They’re in a win-win situation,’ Angelo Zino, an analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said of Apple after issuing a strong buy recommendation for the company’s stock Monday. ‘The immediate term may look bad for them, but there’s absolutely no impact on the fundamentals of the company. They’re the darlings of many consumers,'” Pierson and Dave report. “‘Some consumers will look at this and say, ‘Apple is fighting for my data’ and that will reflect well on Apple,’ said Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. ‘This all helps Apple’s reputation.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The feckless U.S. government does Apple’s marketing for them. In one week, Apple is now synonymous with privacy, security, and freedom.
Keep it up, James Comey et al. Apple will be here long after you’re gone.
SEE ALSO:
Here are the 12 other cases where the U.S. government has demanded Apple help it hack into iPhones – February 23, 2016
John McAfee blasts FBI for ‘illiterate’ order to create Apple iPhone backdoor – February 23, 2016
Some family members of San Bernardino victims back U.S. government – February 23, 2016
Apple supporters to rally worldwide today against U.S. government demand to unlock iPhone – February 23, 2016
U.S. government seeks to force Apple to extract data from a dozen more iPhones – February 23, 2016
Apple CEO Cook: They’d have to cart us out in a box before we’d create a backdoor – February 22, 2016
Tim Cook’s memo to Apple employees: ‘This case is about more than a single phone’ – February 22, 2016
Obama administration: We’re only demanding Apple hack just one iPhone – February 17, 2016
And foaming-at-the-mouth government is the problem conservatives don’t know if they should listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Donald, Joe & Mika, Bill Gates, Micahel Hayden, Mr McAfee, Mr Zuckerburg…..
If you want China to orderApple to unlock thousands of phones you want the government to win, that’s the plain truth.
I am stunned at the number of intelligent people coming down on the wrong side of this.
By “foaming-at-the-mouth government” I assume you mean the current administration. Allow me to, once again, copy and paste my previous response to similar posts on MDN:
Have you not realized by now that it is the Obama administration that is demanding Apple create the backdoor?
The issue of personal privacy should be of paramount importance to all of us, regardless of how we vote. Put your partisan politics aside and look at the facts, as painful as this will be to you.
Please stop demonstrating you ignorance of the US Constitution and how the Government actually works. We do not have a King or a dictator. The Executive Branch (President and FBI) have made a request, that they shouldn’t, IMHO. The independent Judicial Branch has, at the lowest levels, agreed with the Executive Branches request. That part is far from done.
Meanwhile, every would be for national office, all Representatives,a third of Senators and President, and stepping all over themselves trying to figure out which way the wind is blowing. All of the Republican presidential hopefuls are backing the current Obama administration request. It’s a split on the Democratic side.
So support for a Republican president is to continue the direction of the Obama administration. How does that make you feel?
“‘Apple is fighting for my data’ and that will reflect well on Apple,’ said Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. ‘This all helps Apple’s reputation.’”
Once upon a time, not so long ago (in the early 2000’s – post 911), BlackBerry’s CEO also thought it would be good for BlackBerry’s reputation if he went public in his fight to oppose the CIA’s request to access their servers.
The CIA and the U.S. government very politely told the CEO that if he continued to refuse to comply with their request that “it might harm your business”.
Evidently the CIA and the U.S. government were right. We all know what happened to Blackberry.
BlackBerry’s CEO couldn’t have been more wrong and he quickly realized he should never have gone public to oppose the U.S. government and the CIA.
Although this case is somewhat different,
– Blackberry was never prosecuted,
– the government requested access to all of Blackberry’s servers, not specific devices,
– Blackberry was a Canadian corporation unlike Apple which is an American corporation
– the request was made by a different government organization
it will still be very interesting to see what happens in this case to Apple …
I think Blackberry’s demise was more a result of not paying heed to what the iPhone was doing rather than bending over to the requests of a foreign government. Blackberry wasn’t the only one that had the rug pulled out from underneath them by Apple.
Many have claimed that Blackberry’s demise was caused by Apple having introduced a technologically superior phone.
Actually nothing could be further from the truth.
The fact of the matter is that many of the most secure intelligence and government organizations use a highly secure version of Blackberry technology, not Apple.
I’m not convinced with your facts, show me some data or good links.
You claim that Blackberry’s demise effectively started in 2004 shortly after the CIA and the U.S. government warned Blackberry’s CEO. but sales were still growing until they peaked in 2007, when the iphone was introduced, that’s when they declined. From 2004 to 2007 they were doing fine, i.e. their growth was not hurt for years after this warning.
I’ve found that quite often when someone says that they are “just stating facts” they are indeed blowing hot air.
I’m not convinced, give me a reference if you want to sway me, but it sounds way more like a “pay attention to me cause I’m from the USA” situation than a market evolution.
Blackberry’s demise started when they took their eyes off the enterprise customer and tried to chase the iPhone in the consumer space. The company lost focus and blew it in both markets.
Actually, Blackberry’s demise effectively started in 2004 shortly after the CIA and the U.S. government warned Blackberry’s CEO.
In 2004, Blackberry was unquestionably the dominant player of the smartphone industry and was by far the most popular cell phone on the market.
It wasn’t until 2007 that the first iPhone came out so to claim the iPhone had anything to do with Blackberry’s demise is an overstatement, not to mention factually incorrect.
Furthermore, when the first iPhone came out, it was very rudimentary and lacked anything close to the security of a Blackberry phone.
Although the first iPhone was “sexy”, in terms of security it was somewhat of a joke (let alone in terms of features and functionality).
Remember that in 2007, Apple sold very few iPhones. The iPhone only begun to sell well in 2010.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way advocating you should buy a Blackberry phone because I myself wouldn’t.
My only purpose is to provide some facts around what happened to Blackberry when they opposed the U.S. government.
Heck, I’m not even hoping or suggesting the same should happen to Apple.
Just stating facts.
One major difference. They were requesting information in Blackberry’s possession (on their servers). Apple has had the same request and complied with it many times in the past.
You are actually correct in pointing out another key difference in this case being that the information requested was on corporate servers.
In which case the request by the U.S. government to access Blackberry’s servers may have been filed under the Patriot Act.
Funny there isn’t much left of value for that particular nation to lose.
The criticism and charges that Apple is “more interested in its marketing strategy than the law.” is smoke and mirrors. Apple talks the talk and walks the walks and is more interested in the ethics and morality of what’s at stake here, the human beings they provide their products to.
The same can’t be said for the government of that nation.
What the US government already lost is:
TRUST
Very stupid.
Trump = Hitler
Trump and Obama share the EXACT SAME POSITION ON THIS ISSUE.
Allow me to, once again, copy and paste my previous response to similar posts on MDN:
Have you not realized by now that it is the Obama administration that is demanding Apple create the backdoor?
The issue of personal privacy should be of paramount importance to all of us, regardless of how we vote. Put your partisan politics aside and look at the facts, as painful as this will be to you.
You might also enjoy this article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-19/secret-memo-details-u-s-s-broader-strategy-to-crack-phones
I have a solution to this issue: Apple will hire the teams and provide the other types of overhead to create the software the FBI needs. This software will fundamentally change what an Apple product is. This means Apple will lose a significant amount of business because of the FBI product change. So, the price tag for the software and the subsequent lost business (China and Europe banning Apple products) is $2 trillion. Another $500 billion will be needed to educate the public around the world about the product change. There will also be lawsuits filed against Apple from those that are hacked. $2 trillion should cover these cases. So, the total cost of this project is $4.5 trillion. It is required this amount shall be paid before any work commences.
And because the U.S. Government is broke this $4.5 trillion software change will be collected from individuals. $4.5 trillion divided by 320 million people is $14,000 per person. So, a family of four would be expected to pay $56,000. Those that don’t have enough money to cover the cost will have a special paycheck deduction of 50 percent, until the payment is made. It is also requested that Donald Trump and Barrack Obama liquidate and forfeit their current net worth. Any additional monies earned by them will be donated to the FBI software change project for a period of ten years. They will be granted a $50,000 a year stipend to cover living expenses.