Posted on 02/09/2018 7:53:52 AM PST by Swordmaker
In February 2016, as Apple and the FBI were quietly sparring over how to unlock an iPhone owned by one of the perpetrators of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, two FBI officials unrelated to the case back in Washington DC were privately discussing their distaste for Apple CEO Tim Cook.
"And what makes me really angry about that Apple thing? The fact that Tim Cook plays such the privacy advocate," Peter Strzok, an FBI counterintelligence agent, wrote on February 9, 2016. "Yeah, jerky, your entire OS is designed to track me without me even knowing it."
"I know. Hypocrite," Lisa Page, a lawyer for the bureau, replied minutes later.
A week after that exchange, the strained relationship between Apple and the nation's top law enforcement agency became international news when Cook wrote an open letter explaining why Apple would not create special software to unlock the shooter's iPhone, defying a request to do so by the FBI. The FBI eventually dropped the request because it found a third-party vendor who was able to extract data from the iPhone 5C without Apple's help.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The Founding Fathers taught me to distrust government in all of its forms, especially central government.
Every new power the Republicans demanded, from the Patriot Act to TSA, I would always ask, how would Hilary Clinton abuse this power?
We can survive the damage due to a few evil terrorists, even taking down the NY world trade towers. Life goes on and you pass the America Dream on to your childrem. We CANNOT survive the tyranny of oppression caused by a federal government with absolute power over us.
The founders taught us not just to suspect government, but to be downright cynical.. far too manymodern Americans love or trust government, and it is killing us by rapidly eroding our original Constitutional rights.
That is why we are doomed.
If uncrackable encrypted phones are outlawed, only outlaws will have uncrackable encrypted phones.
The government has no authority to limit the ability of the people to ensure their own privacy. Many have already used the false argument that the Second Amendment is not a suicide pact as a way to suggest that infringements that aid the government are allowed. It's also a false argument to suggest that the Fourth Amendment should allow the government to decide the limits of our privacy.
I agree with your posting. It is difficult to be optimistic these days.
How ironic it is that a "smart phone" is one which limits the government's ability to restrict your right to privacy, while a "smart gun" is one which would enable the government to infringe your right to keep and bear arms.
One of the few times Cook may have had a case.
No, it was locked but Apple could have unlocked it with the Terrorist’s Apple ID, but the San Bernardino County IT Department CHANGED the AppleID at the FBI’s suggestion before the called in Apple which LOCKED the data on the phone by erasing the encryption key. After that the only thing even the third party could get access to was generic data when they finally got access, such as address book and phone logs. But this was the guy’s work iPhone and all they found is what they already knew: he only used it for work related activities. . . Plus a couple of incoming calls from his terrorist wife. Nothing else.
That’s right. I remember now. Thank you.
That’s not what I suggested at all. We’re talking about a single phone of a dead terrorists...not an encryption key for the system.
It that is NOT what the Obama Administration demanded. The Obama Admitted demanded a tool that could open ANY iPhone past, present and future. And everyone knows that NO Govt agency can or will secure that software such that it is not distributed to the public.
Further Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Section 802) puts a 20 year and up to a $20k fine for EACH INCIDENT of lying to the public. Apple is on record of saying that they are happy with the profits they make on the hardware. They do not, nor will not ever sell their customers privacy. So multiply every Apple customer by $20k and that number would bankrupt the company.
So Apple had no choice but to stick to their guns and tell the FBI to go pound sand. And I am glad they did.
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