Encryption: Apple vs. the FBI
The world’s most powerful tech company, Apple, faced off against the FBI in a court hearing on March 22, 2016. The issue addressed at the hearing arose earlier this year when Apple refused the FBI’s request to hack into the iPhone 5c iOS 9 of Syed Rizwan Farook, the terrorist who, along with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernardino last December. Though seemingly concise, the battle dissolves into moral and legal ambiguity that has divided the opinions of the people of the United States. It also symbolizes a new era of technology, one in which Americans will be forced to address their right to privacy and security in an age of smartphones.
Farook was killed in a firefight after shooting 14 people to death in San Bernardino, California, but the FBI recovered his cellphone. The data the FBI is seeking after, including Farook’s possible involvement with ISIS, is encrypted by a four-digit passcode on his iPhone. After ten wrong attempts at the passcode, all of the information on the phone will be erased. The FBI contacted Apple, the company that designed the phone, to see if they knew the passcode. When Apple didn’t, the FBI requested that Apple code a replicate of the iOS 9 without the 10-guess limit and persuade Farook’s iPhone to install it. The FBI could then guess the passcode uninhibited and gain access to the valuable data on the phone. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, refused. Shortly thereafter the FBI publicly obtained a court order under the All Writs Act of 1789 which would require Apple to create the technology they wanted.
Apple’s refusal to aid the government in a domestic terrorism investigation has inflamed and divided public opinion. Cook claims that code is a way of communication and forcing someone to create a program is an exploitation of their first amendment right. The FBI; however, demands the Fourth Amendment; the right to security. In addition, Cook is arguing that the creation of a tool that could hack into an iPhone could compromise the security of millions of people if the code is stolen or copied. The UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 12 outlines every person’s right to privacy. Where, however, does personal privacy end and national security begin? The FBI is relying upon a 200-year old document called the All Writs Act which states that the federal courts of the United States have the right to issue “all writs necessary or appropriate… to the usages and principles of law.” Thus begins the moral duel between security and privacy that this encryption battle represents. Without encryption, have Americans begun the descent towards constant surveillance outlined in George Orwell’s 1984? Tim Cook said, “if this All Writs Act can be used to force us to do something that would make millions of people vulnerable, then you can begin to ask yourself, If that can happen, what else can happen?… Maybe law enforcement would like the ability to turn on the camera on your Mac.”
Which is more formidable – the threat to Americans security or the threat to American democracy? If the FBI succeeds in forcing Apple to create a decryption device, have civil liberties been compromised? In an age where iPhones are representative of our personalities and often carry extremely private information such as medical details, addresses, emails, and phone numbers, it is easy to exploit and hack a person’s data. Such technology didn’t exist a decade ago or 200 years ago when the All Writs Act was drafted. Today, a person’s legacy could be the information stored on their smartphone. Encryption is what protects that. Law enforcement, however, is what protects the people of the United States. A domestic terrorist attack is an enormous threat to national security, but is decryption a greater threat to the security of democracy? In an era of technology that will only become more and more powerful, there must be a fine line drawn between privacy and security for the safeguard and integrity of our nation.
Update: On March 28, 2016, a third party aided the FBI in unlocking the iPhone in question without Apple’s help.
