Apple is going through some rough days, but it seems that the tech company has the support of Google’s CEO. After U.S Magistrates have required Apple to create a soft to unlock San Bernardino Gunman’s iPhone, Tim Cook has answered trough a letter. He declared that his company will refuse to create a “backdoor,” because this will be an imminent danger for millions of iPhone users.
These days, Obama’s top intelligence advisers went to meet Timothy D. Cook and other technology leaders in Silicon Valley. The subject of their discussion was the encryption safeguards built into their devices. Even if the meeting was named a friendly one, it seems that behind the scenes, relations were tense.
Of course, Apple and lawyers for the Obama administration have also closely discussed the number one problem. The lawyers asked Apple to help the FBI to help “unlock” an iPhone used by the attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino. As it is already well-known, Tim Cook has refused to create a software like this because he claimed that this will create a huge rick for other iPhone users.
After the talks collapsed, a federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to help the FBI in this case. Here is the point where the battle has become quite interesting. Social networks have been filled with furious comments against Obama’s administration. And Tim Cook has declared that he is ready to fight the court’s order.
“The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe,” Tim Cook has said.
Today, Apple has another new supporter. We are talking about Google, because the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai has tweeted his support for Cook’s position.
“Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy,” Pichai wrote on Tweeter.
“We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism. We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders.”
Of course, the declaration that comes from Google’s CEO is somehow surprisingly, because we know that over the past two years, Tim Cook had some critical declarations about Google and other competitors. Cook has declared that Google and other tech companies are not taking security as serious as it should be. Well, it looks like Google has made a good move these days, supporting Apple against the government.
The question is if other giant companies will take side with Apple in this battle over privacy. To be added that technology has moved faster than the law, because the FBI is trying to use a law from 1789. We are talking about the All Writs Act. So, will Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, show support for Apple? We will wait and see.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is not backing down, declaring that:
“It is unfortunate that Apple continues to refuse to assist the department in obtaining access to the phone of one of the terrorists involved in a major terror attack on U.S. soil.”
