Tech Companies to Unite in Support of Apple

Apple is at the center of a high-profile encryption fight with the government after resisting a court order to help law enforcement access the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.

Earlier today, Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer, Brat Smith announced that the company “wholeheartedly” supports Apple, and would be filing an amicus brief in support of Apple’s position.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is among those planning to file an amicus brief, which refers to an unsolicited “friend of the court” opinion. The government has asked Apple to develop new software that would bypass a security feature so that the government can try an unlimited number of attempts to break the iPhone’s lock screen. “And the only way to get the law right for the future is for Congress to act”. But Apple’s conflict with the United States’ government quickly turned pro-privacy: Tech giants including Google, Facebook, Microsoft & Twitter are all lining up to support Apple in court.

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. “If the Federal Bureau of Investigation can force Apple to hack into its customers’ devices, then so too can every repressive regime in the rest of the world”.

Wait just a minute: Aren’t those the same companies that Apple has previously criticized by lobbing veiled accusations that they exploit your personal information – to sell ads – and effectively endanger your privacy? Apple’s Tim Cook says that the iPhone encryption debate should shift the debate over national security and privacy to Capitol Hill. On the other hand, it could also drive the wedge deeper between Silicon Valley and middle America, particularly for citizens who believe the USA should be doing more to combat terrorism. A crucial unresolved case is whether or not the us government can unilaterally compel Microsoft to give up data it has stored in a server overseas.

By contrast with Google’s business, Whetstone said, government surveillance often involves data “collected for an entirely separate goal”, usually from people who didn’t expect it would be seen by authorities. Like Facebook, Google says it pushes back against government requests that seem unwarranted or over-broad. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai quickly both stated their support for Apple.