“Apple Inc. agreed to unlock a drug dealer’s iPhone before abruptly changing course in October after a judge said he wanted more information from the company before issuing a warrant, federal prosecutors said,” Christie Smythe reports for Bloomberg.
“Apple’s response was ‘the first time ever’ it opposed the government on such a demand, the Justice Department said Monday in appealing the magistrate judge’s Feb. 29 decision that the company need not cooperate with the U.S.,” Smythe reports. “‘The Department of Justice has made the same application, for the same assistance, from the same company, dozens of times before,’ the government said in a 51-page legal brief. ‘The company has complied every time. Until now.'”
“The government in its brief argued that Apple’s about-face was driven by marketing concerns rather than principle,” Smythe reports. “Last month, in response to the California judge’s order that Apple aid in the San Bernardino investigation, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said U.S. demands for iPhone access are a chilling attack on privacy. The rulings in Brooklyn and California may eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court. ‘Judge Orenstein ruled the FBI’s request would ‘thoroughly undermine fundamental principles of the Constitution’ and we agree,’ Apple said in a statement on Monday.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oppose government overreach no matter how many lies they tell.
SEE ALSO:
Can the FBI force a company to break into its own products? No, says U.S. Magistrate – March 2, 2016