Opponents of encryption criticized Apple for its business practices Monday, saying the tech giant is impeding law enforcement by installing technology that cannot be broken.
“As a society, we don’t allow phone companies to design their systems to avoid lawful, court-ordered searches,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement Monday morning.
“If we apply a different legal standard to companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, we can expect them to become the preferred messaging services of child pornographers, drug traffickers and terrorists alike — which neither these companies nor law enforcement want,” Cotton added.
Cotton’s statement came in response to an appearance by Apple CEO Tim Cook on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday evening.
“If the government lays a proper warrant on us today, then we will give the specific information that is requested, because we have to by law,” Cook said in the interview. “In the case of encrypted information, we don’t have it to give … I don’t believe the trade-off here is privacy versus national security.”
Cook was reiterating his company’s position in favor of end-to-end encryption, which shields data between two people from outside observation, and full-disk encryption, which applies at the hardware level, and prevents outside access without an encryption key.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. also issued a statement responding to Cook’s appearance.
“Local law enforcement agencies rely on photos, videos, and messages stored on lawfully seized smartphones to hold perpetrators accountable, deliver justice for victims, and exonerate the innocent,” Vance said in the Sunday statement. “Apple implemented full-disk encryption so that it could no longer comply with the judicial search warrants that make this work possible.
“iPhones are now the first consumer products in American history that are beyond the reach of lawful warrants. The result is crimes go unsolved and victims are left beyond the protection of law,” Vance added. “Because Apple is unwilling to help solve this problem, the time for a national, legislative solution is now.”
Vance, whose father served as secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, has been an outspoken opponent of modern encryption standards.
During his interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Charlie Rose, Cook explained his opposition to weakening encryption.
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“If there’s a way to get in, then somebody will find a way to get in,” Cook said. “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.”
