Apple have recently made a plea for help on their website regarding a recent request from the United States Government to allow back door access to Apple’s iPhone mobile phone products.
The letter begins with the following statement:
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.
Apple continue to outline the implications of such a request would have on the security of their product from a consumer point of view and as they quite rightly state the US Government have set a dangerous precedent by bypassing the usual methods of such a request and using the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.
Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority. The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer. The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge. Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
Unfortunately what we are seeing here is the beginning of a much broader plan to give transparency to everything that citizens do – it’s up to us, the citizens to stand up against these types of crimes against freedom and privacy.
Now whether Apple actually care at all about your privacy or whether this is just a marketing ploy is debatable and more than likely the latter, however this shouldn’t distract from the real threat to our privacy we are seeing here.
Read the full letter on apples website here: apple.com/customer-letter/