“If you’ve been reading the headlines about Apple’s fight with the FBI, you know it’s easy to assume we’re all doomed,” Shara Tibken reports for CNET. “Either law enforcement will lose the ability to thwart terrorist plots, or we’ll be forced to live in a police state. Neither of those outcomes is exactly what you’d call appealing.”
MacDailyNews Take: The FBI is lying.
“The two sides will meet before a magistrate judge on Tuesday in Riverside to make their arguments on whether Apple should build a new version of its mobile software so the FBI can hack into an iPhone 5C used by one of the San Bernardino shooters,” Tibken reports. “Tuesday will be the first chance for both parties to make arguments before Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym. This could drag on for a while, even years. Judge Pym won’t make a ruling immediately, and her decision faces appeal, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Tibken reports, “Apple counters the government’s warning by saying the FBI shouldn’t be fixated on what it can access but realize there’s a ‘mountain’ of information that now is available because of technology. ‘Going dark — this is a crock,’ Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an interview with TIME. “‘No one’s going dark.'”
“And experts say law enforcement has to find a way to fight crime in a world with strong encryption,” Tibken reports. “‘The cost of maintaining a free society is that sometimes criminals won’t be caught,’ said John Hasnas, a professor of ethics at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. ‘Sometimes there are bad things we can’t prevent.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank you, Mr. Hasnas. It’s always nice to hear some solid pragmatism is a world seemingly full to the brim with clueless idealists.
SEE ALSO:
Apple sees weakness in FBI’s last-minute hearing request – March 18, 2016
The FBI has a big ulterior motive in its war against privacy and Apple’s encrypted iPhone – March 18, 2016
The law is clear: The FBI cannot make Apple rewrite iOS – March 18, 2016
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