“If the F.B.I. wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers,” John Markoff, Katie Benner and Brian X. Chen report for The New York Times. “Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.”
“The potential resistance adds a wrinkle to a very public fight between Apple, the world’s most valuable company, and the authorities over access to an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif. It also speaks directly to arguments Apple has made in legal documents that the government’s demand curbs free speech by asking the company to order people to do things that they consider offensive,” Markoff, Benner and Chen report. “‘Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers,’ Apple’s lawyers wrote in the company’s final brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.”
“The employees’ concerns also provide insight into a company culture that despite the trappings of Silicon Valley wealth still views the world through the decades-old, anti-establishment prism of its co-founders Steven P. Jobs and Steve Wozniak,” Markoff, Benner and Chen report. “‘It’s an independent culture and a rebellious one,’ said Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist who was once an engineering manager at Apple. ‘If the government tries to compel testimony or action from these engineers, good luck with that.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey F.B.I., decrypt this:
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Tim Cook on FBI fight: ‘No one’s going dark’ – March 17, 2016
Harvard Law professor and former Obama special assistant dismisses FBI’s claims – March 17, 2016
Apple: The law already exists that protects us from U.S. government demands to hack iPhone – February 26, 2016
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
