Most Americans Support FBI Over Apple, Finds Pew

Apple’s Cook has vigorously opposed the FBI’s demand, saying the government is asking the company to “hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers”.

Bill Gates, a founder of Microsoft, publicly broke with Apple in its clash with the Justice Department over access to an iPhone that belonged to an attacker in the December mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. “Should anybody be able to get at bank records…it’s a simple question of do voters want the government, in any case, is there any case where a company should provide the information?”

A group of people demonstrated outside the Apple store on Boylston Street Tuesday to support the company in its standoff against the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Farook had worked as a county health inspector. These other 12 cases do not involve terrorism, notes the WSJ and adds that “Privacy advocates are likely to seize on the cases’ existence as proof the government aims to go far beyond what prosecutors have called the limited scope of the current public court fight over a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters”. Olson served as the government’s top lawyer before the Supreme Court during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Yet Gates said it’s important not to get too caught up in the emotions following a terrorist attack.

While clarifying he doesn’t support untrammeled government access to personal data, the Microsoft co-founder’s position runs contrary to those of many tech executives who have backed Apple Inc. “It makes me question their interest in the safety of this country”.

The protests organized by the Internet rights group Fight for the Future are scheduled to occur Tuesday outside Apple stores the U.S., the U.K., Hong Kong and Germany.

Slightly more than half of all Americans, 51%, when asked whether Apple should unlock the phone, believe it should comply with the FBI’s order, according to a survey carried out by the Pew Research Center.

In a keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed conditional support for Apple.

“In this situation, as it relates to the phone that was used by the terrorist in San Bernardino, we’re talking about a phone that was owned not by the terrorist, but by the local government”. The remainder gave no opinion.