Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted Wednesday in front of a Senate panel that the federal government is not asking Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters in order to break or weaken private sector encryption.
“We do not want a backdoor into Apple or anyone else’s technology,” Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning. “What we are asking for is for Apple to comply with a valid court order.”
Apple is currently fighting a court order that demands it build a piece of software that can unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone, which would allow the FBI to break into it. The Justice Department is also appealing a decision by a New York court that prevents it from forcing Apple to help it break into an older model iPhone.
Apple maintains that the creation of a “back door” would allow criminals a way into any of its devices to misuse and exploit the technology. The technology giant also argues that giving the government access to the phones would set a dangerous precedent against privacy going forward.
Lynch pushed back against these claims, saying that the newly created technology would be used only for the phones in question.
“Every platform is different and presents different issues and the response to the government should be as narrowly tailored as possible,” Lynch said Wednesday.
