Amazon to support Apple on fight over unlocking iPhone

He told a House panel on Thursday that the code Apple will write will be for the specific iPhone 5c used by deceased San Bernardino terror suspect Syed Farook. However, many USA politicians and the security services say that Apple should help.

Apple asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym to vacate the FBI’s order based on the notion the order violates the company’s First Amendment right, and that the All Writs Act, the FBI’s legal argument, is “unreasonably burdensome” for the company to follow.

Today, Apple has filed a motion to vacate the court order, in other words an official appeal that the order be dropped.

Apple called the order a government overreach and said it would set a unsafe precedent where companies would be compelled to weaken security features on devices that encrypt data.

A Twitter spokesperson also confirmed to NBC News that that company expects “to be on a brief supporting Apple”, but declined to say whether that filing would be alone or in conjunction with other companies.

Arguing that the court should throw out the order that it issued last week, Apple said in its brief on Thursday that software was a form of protected speech, and thus the Justice Department’s demand violated the constitution. While the government claims the use would be restricted to this one case and that software would remain in Apple’s possession to do with as they wish, the company says that there is “no way to guarantee such control”.

“If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write – maybe it’s an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera”, he said.

“This case is not a case about one isolated iPhone”, Apple said in the filing, reiterating previous comments. Public supporters of Apple express the fear that this represents one more way the government might use to spy on innocent Americans in the name of preventing an attack. Hence FBI wants Apple to develop an OS update which would do away the security measure.

And it accused the government of working under a closed courtroom process under the auspices of a terrorism investigation of trying “to cut off debate and circumvent thoughtful analysis”. FBI Director James Comey and Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, are among those expected to testify. Also scheduled to appear were Susan Landau, a cybersecurity expert at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Cyrus Vance Jr, the NY district attorney who has criticized Apple for locking its iPhones without allowing access for law enforcement.