Bill Gates sides against Apple in FBI iPhone-unlocking case

Gates is saying that this is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information, which is a common request in the telecom industry.

Apple’s stance over the demand to create a backdoor to the suspect’s iPhone was clear and firm and was founded upon the pillar that creating a means of overriding the iOS device’s security protocol would be setting a unsafe precedent, but Mr. Gates obviously believes that this case and the proceedings that follow, should and would not have any such effect and its consequences would not stretch beyond the premise of the said case.

Zuckerberg had stayed silent on the subject until Monday, while leaders from Google (GOOG) and Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) made public comments supporting Apple last week.

Breaking ranks with Silicon Valley companies who support Apple in its refusal to hack the phone of one of the attackers, Gates said technology companies should be forced to co-operate with law enforcement in terrorism investigations, the Financial Times said.

Gates said there needs to be a broader discussion about when government should be able to access information. One prominent name, however, has broken ranks, as Bill Gates is insisting Apple should do it.

“Should governments be able to access information at all or should they be blind, that’s essentially what we are talking about”, he told the BBC.

Giving over the information is similar to a company handing over phone records, he said.

Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are locked in a standoff over a court order issued last week.

FBI Director James Comey has described his agency’s request as “limited”. Although the company hasn’t issued its own official statement on the Apple case, it is a member of the Reform Government Surveillance alliance. “In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks – from restaurants and banks to stores and homes”, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in an open letter to customers. Thirty-eight per cent of those polled said they were on Apple’s side, while 11 per cent were undecided. “Once a backdoor is built, there’s no way to ensure it will only be used by the government and law enforcement, and it will eventually leak either by malicious hackers, foreign governments, terrorists or thieves and stalkers to use our data against us”.