Community Chat

[Deb1010yetagain]

It's all over the news that the San  Bernardino terrorist's phone is in the hands of the FBI and they need Apple to develop a way to unlock the passcode so they can access important communication information.   Apple is refusing.  What do you think?

[dex]

I think Apple should do their public safety duty.A judge has authorized this action.

[deepwaterdotter]

Sounds like it might be a case for Apple's legal department.

[Mominohio]

This would seem like a no brainer. The deed was done, there is no question as to the phone's owners involvement, and if a judge has ordered it, it needs to be done.

This may contain information that could stop people that would do this same kind of harm or worse in the future. 

Why do the simplest things seem so hard to get done sometimes?

[scotnovel]

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@dex wrote:

I think Apple should do their public safety duty.A judge has authorized this action.

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According to one article that I read, they said the reason they don't want to do this is to protect public safety.  Apparently, according to Apple, they have no sympathy for terrorists but if they create a program that allows them to hack their users that will undermine all the security enhancement they have created to protect users.  I guess assuming that cypercriminals will get ahold of the program and use it against millions.  

I don't begin to actually understand all of the implications of this, but unfortunately, I don't think this is as simple as them doing their public safety duty.  I think this one will end up in the appeals courts and maybe even the Supreme Court at some point.  

[ladyroxanne]

how dare apple say no to the federal government especially when it concerns domestic terrorists.  shame on them!

[sharlee]

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@Mominohio wrote:

This would seem like a no brainer. The deed was done, there is no question as to the phone's owners involvement, and if a judge has ordered it, it needs to be done.

This may contain information that could stop people that would do this same kind of harm or worse in the future. 

Why do the simplest things seem so hard to get done sometimes?

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Because what can seem simple isn't always.  Some of the finest legal minds in the country are very divided on this.

Apple is essentially being asked to create a sort of "master key" that could be used on anybody's iphone, not just those belonging to terrorists.

And for my money, the whole "create the hacking software, use it once and destroy it" notion is naive in the extreme - the genie never goes back into the bottle.

[MaggieMack]

Apple's refusal has something to do with not wanting to establish a precedent, bringing China and Russia into their argument.

But the FBI only wants this one phone unlocked, and it was obviously used in the horrific crime. I hope Apple works with them behind the scenes and just carries out this refusal for global public consumption.

[chrystaltree]

I think Apple should do the right thing, the moral thing, the responsible thing and develop a way to unlock that phone. I cannot believe they are refusing and they can't even come up with a valid reason for refusing.

[Kachina624]

It's not just a matter of some Apple guru unlocking this one phone.   Apple would have to put its engineers to work developing a software program to unlock not only this phone but potentially others down the line.   Currently no software exists to unlock iPhones.   They're afraid if they do it once,  there will be a barrage of requests from other law enforcement agencies.   This then becomes a trust issue between Apple and it's customers.   I think they're right to refuse.