The US Department of Justice fired back at Apple on Thursday in an ongoing battle over unlocking an iPhone, saying that complying with the FBI’s request wouldn’t be an “undue burden” for the company.
The government, in a 43-page court filing, said Apple “deliberately raised technological barriers that now stand between a lawful warrant and an iPhone containing evidence related to the terrorist mass murder of 14 Americans.”
“Apple alone can remove those barriers so that the FBI can search the phone, and it can do so without undue burden,” the government said.
Apple on February 25 filed a motion asking the courts to vacate the judge’s order requiring it to help the FBI access the iPhone. The company said the order violates its constitutional rights.
“This is not about one isolated iPhone,” said the tech
“The government and the community need to know what is on the terrorist’s phone, and the government needs Apple’s assistance to find out,” the Justice Department filing says.
Apple has until March 15 to file another response to the government’s request. A hearing to discuss the standoff between Apple and the FBI is set for March 22 in federal court in Riverside, California.
Here’s the interview of Bill Gates talking about Apple and the FBI’s request for intrusion.
“This case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.”
Here’s the interview of Steve Wozniak
The Justice Department noted that the Constitution, the All Writs Act (the 227-year-old law used to compel Apple to assist the FBI), and the three branches of government should be trusted to “strike the balance between each citizen’s right to privacy and all citizens’ right to safety and justice. The rule of law does not repose that power in a single corporation, no matter how successful it has been in selling its products.”
The Cupertino, California, company says that complying with the FBI’s request will create a back door into the iPhone and set a “dangerous precedent” that exposes all its customers to security risks. The government says this is a onetime request (even though there is a list of a dozen other iPhones it wants unlocked) and argues that getting information from the iPhone is a matter of national security.
