RULING AFFIRMS RIGHT TO ENCRYPT …
We’ve written several times now on the big battle brewing between the federal government and tech giant Apple.
This is a major case … featuring some tall tales being told by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is trying to force Apple to provide it with a universal encryption key capable of unlocking all iPhones, iPads and iPods.
As lovers of liberty, we adamantly oppose the government’s effort to bypass such a fundamental privacy protection …
So does U.S. magistrate judge James Orenstein of New York – who ruled against the government this week in a similar case involving efforts to compel Apple to “assist” another criminal investigation.
Orenstein ruled that the government’s reliance on a vague 1789 statute known as the All Writs Act does not “justify imposing on Apple the obligation to assist the government’s investigation against its will.”
Then he took it a step further …
“The implications of the government’s position are so far-reaching – both in terms of what it would allow today and what it implies about congressional intent in 1789 – as to produce impermissibly absurd results,” he wrote.
Orenstein added that the FBI’s argument “reflects poorly on a government that exists in part to safeguard the freedom of its citizens – acting as individuals or through the organizations they create – to make autonomous choices about how best to balance societal and private interests in going about their lives and their businesses.”
Amen to that …
Apple has refused to comply with the government’s order – arguing that the creation of a master iPhone unlocking program was “too dangerous to create.”
We agree … it’s certainly far too dangerous a tool to hand over to the people have been spying on us for years without warrants and storing our data without our permission …
“Such universal access is far too dangerous to entrust to the government given its track record on mass surveillance and other violations of individual liberty,” we wrote last month.
Let’s hope the courts keep ruling this way …
8 comments
You would think the FBI would be pretty tied up investigating classified information on a private server. You think the Obama Administration has put together how all the State Dept. leaks occurred?
In a Freedom of the Press column, what’s the latest with Kenny’s lawsuit.
If the FBI wants to “crack open some phones”, why not just advertise a no strings attached four year full ride college scholarship to any high school student who can break the code in 24 hours or less
Same deal would apply to any kid in the 5th grade or higher
You are wrong about that, by the way. Even Apple techies admit they had no way to decrypt this information. Even with the potential inside information Apple had on the development of the encryption software, it would have taken a huge effort and months of work. Apple did not put a backdoor into the software.
Why do you think the Government is trying to force Apple to do it? Because without the insider information on the software development there is no reasonable possibility of decryption, within a usable time frame. And by that I mean years.
—– interesting
My original comment was more than a little tongue in cheek
Not being “tech savvy” I will none the less venture out to state that if the Appies were smart enough to build the damn phones they are smart enough to take the damn phones apart
As for Apple or anyone else stating there is no backdoor, I say homogenized corporate bullshit
Even the dumbest rabbit in the forest has two ways in and two ways out
“Even the dumbest rabbit in the forest has two ways in and two ways out”
On behalf of Elmer Fudd and Shifty — that is true.