Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday reiterated the company’s opposition to helping the feds access its products, and called for a commission to study the issue of encryption.
“Our country has always been strongest when we come together,” Cook said in an internal email to employees Monday. “We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy and personal freedoms. Apple would gladly participate in such an effort.”
Last week, a federal judge ordered the company to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation access an iPhone 5C used by one of the killers in the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Apple has suggested that setting such a precedent would have unforeseen consequences, including weaker security on its products around the world.
“Apple is a uniquely American company,” Cook wrote in his email. “It does not feel right to be on the opposite side of the government in a case centering on the freedoms and liberties that government is meant to protect.”
In addition to the letter, Apple has set up a Q&A page addressing issues involved with the case. The page addresses one argument in particular that the federal government has emphasized, which is that the case would not set a precedent. Instead, the Department of Justice has emphasized, law enforcement officials simply want Apple to help bypass the password lock on one device, and destroy the software used afterwards.
“The digital world is very different from the physical world,” Apple’s webpage explains. “In the physical world you can destroy something and it’s gone. But in the digital world, the technique, once created, could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. Law enforcement agents around the country have already said they have hundreds of iPhones they want Apple to unlock if the FBI wins this case.”
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“In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks. Of course, Apple would do our best to protect that key, but in a world where all of our data is under constant threat, it would be relentlessly attacked by hackers and cybercriminals,” Apple states.
