To whom much is given, much is expected. I’m sure that Apple Inc. would rather not be in the middle of this very public battle with the FBI over iPhone encryption. But this is one battle that Tim Cook must fight.
The question that must be answered is, “will honoring the Government’s request cause more harm than good?” The immediate goal of the FBI is a worthy one. However, even the government takes a hard line when it seems that the overall public good is greater than the immediate need. Case in point. The US government will never pay ransom for hostages. The immediate urge to pay off terrorists to free hostages is a strong one and may even be popular at the time. But doing so would put others in the future at greater risk. So it is never done.
I get the sense that this could be a very pivotal moment in history. As if there are two roads that lie before us as a society and we are on precipice of choosing one of them. If Apple loses this battle, the government will only make more and more demands on what they have access to. The apparatus will be put into place that not only the CIA or FBI has access but any hacker with enough will. If Apple wins this battle, the precedent for our phone as our private vault will have been set in stone.
Any argument that attempts to state that Apple could give the FBI what they need from this single phone without endangering future encryption is dead wrong. That kind of naivete fails to recognize history. The Boston Tea Party wasn’t really about a fairly modest tax imposed on tea. It was a power struggle over boundaries.
Property rights is the foundation upon which Western Civilization is built. All commerce would cease to exist if the expectation of ownership could not be enforced. I can’t help but think that the concept of our phones as digital vaults is just as profound. But the ramifications of this personal right imploding is not so clear to the public or politicians.
If the FBI opens Pandora’s box and all of a sudden no one has a reasonable expectation that their digital vaults are private anymore what will happen? If hackers could steal your credit card numbers or bank account information wouldn’t you stop using your phone for certain activities? If a rival company could get your lowest bid on a contract and undercut you, wouldn’t you de-couple your phone from wherever you store your spreadsheets?
If this was all a dystopian science fiction movie and someone had to travel back in time to that pivotal point at which history went off the rails, that day would be today. February 2016 would be where the battle against future tyranny needs to be fought.
I get the sense that this could be a very pivotal moment in history. As if there are two roads that lie before us as a society and we are on precipice of choosing one of them. If Apple loses this battle, the government will only make more and more demands on what they have access to. The apparatus will be put into place that not only the CIA or FBI has access but any hacker with enough will. If Apple wins this battle, the precedent for our phone as our private vault will have been set in stone.
Any argument that attempts to state that Apple could give the FBI what they need from this single phone without endangering future encryption is dead wrong. That kind of naivete fails to recognize history. The Boston Tea Party wasn’t really about a fairly modest tax imposed on tea. It was a power struggle over boundaries.
Property rights is the foundation upon which Western Civilization is built. All commerce would cease to exist if the expectation of ownership could not be enforced. I can’t help but think that the concept of our phones as digital vaults is just as profound. But the ramifications of this personal right imploding is not so clear to the public or politicians.
If the FBI opens Pandora’s box and all of a sudden no one has a reasonable expectation that their digital vaults are private anymore what will happen? If hackers could steal your credit card numbers or bank account information wouldn’t you stop using your phone for certain activities? If a rival company could get your lowest bid on a contract and undercut you, wouldn’t you de-couple your phone from wherever you store your spreadsheets?
If this was all a dystopian science fiction movie and someone had to travel back in time to that pivotal point at which history went off the rails, that day would be today. February 2016 would be where the battle against future tyranny needs to be fought.
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