Bill Gates thinks Apple should unlock iPhones at the government’s request
“In an interview with Axios, Bill Gates warned Apple and other tech giants that they risk the kind of nightmarish government intervention that once plagued his Microsoft if they act arrogantly,” Mike Allen reports for Axios. “[Gates said], ‘The companies need to be careful that they’re not … advocating things that would prevent government from being able to, under appropriate review, perform the type of functions that we’ve come to count on.’ Asked if he sees instances of that now, Gates replied: ‘Oh, absolutely.'”
“Asked for an example, Gates pointed to the companies’ ‘enthusiasm about making financial transactions anonymous and invisible, and their view that even a clear mass-murdering criminal’s communication should never be available to the government,'” Allen reports. “When I said he seemed to be referring to being able to unlock an iPhone, Gates replied: ‘There’s no question of ability; it’s the question of willingness.'”
Bill Gates, Microsoft Technology AdvisorMacDailyNews Take: Bill Gates. The big thinker who missed the Internet and whose company Steve Jobs passed by so quickly, Gates couldn’t even comprehend what was happening, much less instruct his pet ape how to respond.
The old thief Gates would like nothing better than for Apple to wreck their secure platform(s) with ill-considered back doors with keys for government spooks to misuse, abuse, and lose.
For the umpteenth time: Encryption is either on or off. This is a binary issue. There is no in-between. You either have encryption or you do not.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015
This is not about this phone. This is about the future. And so I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or in any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people’s abilities to protect themselves. If we take encryption away… the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people. Apple doesn’t own encryption. Encryption is readily available in every country in the world, as a matter of fact, the U.S. government sponsors and funs encryption in many cases. And so, if we limit it in some way, the people that we’ll hurt are the good people, not the bad people; they will find it anyway. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 2016
