“The problem for the president is that when it comes to the specific battle going on right now between Apple and the FBI, the law is clear: twenty years ago, Congress passed a statute, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) that does not allow the government to tell manufacturers how to design or configure a phone or software used by that phone — including security software used by that phone,” Susan Crawford writes for Backchannel.
Susan Crawford is a professor at Harvard Law School who, in 2009, served as Obama’s “Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.”
“CALEA was the subject of intense negotiation — a deal, in other words. The government won an extensive, specific list of wiretapping assistance requirements in connection with digital communications. But in exchange, in Section 1002 of that act, the Feds gave up authority to ‘require any specific design of equipment, facilities, services, features or system configurations” from any phone manufacturer,'” Crawford writes. “The government can’t require companies that build phones to come to it for clearance in advance of launching a new device. Nor can the authorities ask a manufacturer to design something new — like a back door — once that device is out.”
Crawford writes, “No gaps; no interpretive sunlight: CALEA stops the government from doing what it wants to do to Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the U.S.A. is stil workig correctly, the U.S. government will come to deeply rue this egregious and despicable overreach attempt.
SEE ALSO:
Apple engineers, if ordered to unlock iPhone, might resist – March 17, 2016
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