Bill Gates Sides with Federal Bureau of Investigation on Encryption Case

Facebook, Twitter and Google founders and bosses have all sided with Apple in the ongoing dispute, though some have done so more forcefully than others.

Microsoft has not officially commented on its stance on the matter; however, as The Financial Times pointed out, the Reform Government Surveillance organization – which Microsoft is a member of – has released a statement saying companies should not be required to build backdoors into their products.

Paris: Microsoft founder Bill Gates is backing the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its standoff with Apple over unlocking an iPhone in the probe of last year’s deadly San Bernardino attacks, a media report said on Tuesday.

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information”. Gates, however, is saying this is akin to tying a ribbon around a disk drive and saying ‘Don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times.’, meaning that this will only continue with the precedent that’s already been set by the government for banks and telco’s.

In a series of tweets last week, Pichai warned that creating a backdoor for law enforcement to bypass security measures could compromise users’ privacy.

“Should governments be able to access information at all or should they be blind, that’s essentially what we are talking about”, Gates told the BBC. “We are pretty sympathetic to Tim and Apple”, Facebook’s chief executive told delegates at the world’s biggest mobile congress in Barcelona. Apple argues that governments, both in the US and overseas, are likely to use the program in other cases, undermining data privacy. “Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake”.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates is urging Apple Inc. “RGS companies remain committed to providing law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers’ information”. A USA magistrate ordered Apple to write software that would enable FBI investigators to break open the phone but Apple has so far refused.

“The courts should not be left to set policy without a national dialogue on how our national security and technology policy interact”, Warner said in a statement Monday. “This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer”.