What I find more disturbing than the fact that the FBI is not backing down on this issue and understanding the company's standpoint here is the fact that the circulating survey of U.S. citizens has a slight majority taking the side of the Feds. The number floating around is that about 51% of Americans want Apple to unlock the phone for the government, 41% say no, and the rest are undecided.
I can understand the emotion driven response of some asking Apple to comply but even emotion should not cloud the judgement of any of those 51% who understand technology at all. I know there are a slew of people in the world today that just don't get technology. My own mother just recently took her second stab at using a smartphone and already hates it all over again. But this is 2016 and it saddens me to know that more than half of America's population is ignorant enough to not realize the resounding implications this precedent would represent.
No, Apple should not under any circumstances ever build a backdoor into their devices even if it is an alleged 'one-time' scenario. There is no such thing as a 'one-time' scenario. Once this trend is set, it cannot be unset. Six months from now some other lunatic is going to wreak some terrific havoc. He's going to have a locked Android device on him. Some ignorant agent at the Bureau is going to remember this moment and rather than doing his/her job and finding the right way to the end said case, they're going to order Google to build a backdoor. These same ignorant folk crying out now are going to cry out again... and again... and again. At some point, most likely this very first instance, this new gateway into our beloved secure data is going to be leaked, analyzed, reverse engineered then mass-distributed along enough lines to be devastating to our personal and professional security.
How many of you use mobile banking apps? How many use your phone to sign into one secure login or another regarding your job? How many of you have BitCoin wallets, PayPal, Google Pay, etc. all just sitting there on your secure little haven of data and security. Sure, there are many of you out there who don't know what half of what I just said are but you will, or at least your children will. This is a ship that cannot be unsailed.
And just when I think it can't get much worse; I mean, at least all the tech-giants are standing fast together, right? Yeah, not so much. Now Bill Gates has decided to chime in. This is the single most disgusting thing I have ever witnessed this power-mogul pull and I've seen him turn some dirty, filthy tactics onto his competition (not to mention, you his consumers.) Bill Gates built an empire of enslaved citizens all paying hundreds for an operating system that should always have been free. He did this to an end. He did this to get and stay on top of the PC industry. It worked, but this is a completely different story than the one I'm trying to tell, so I apologize for the digression. What disgusts me about this situation is that of all the people in the world, Bill Gates is among the top rung of those that should fully understand just WHY the government, ANY government should never demand such a task as what the Feds are asking now. So is it that he does not understand (somehow, with all his knowledge of technology and the tech world,) or that he is ignorant enough to believe that a security flaw of this magnitude is containable? Either way, all we can do now is hope that either a public outcry or one tech-savvy judge comes forward with enough force and will to protect Apple (and any other company that would be asked to betray their customers in this way,) against this senseless act of ignorance.
UPDATE:
Now, just one day after finally chiming in on this situation, I read this at Fortune.com (by: Robert Hackett - @rhhackett) explaining that just since October the FBI has requested Apple to unlock more than twelve devices in a number of different cases. Apple has declined on the majority and is awating further decision on a few cases. This alone should be more than enough evidence for the argument that this is not a 'one-time' scenario. This is an ongoing attempt of the United States government to usurp our rights to privacy and extend the long and entangling arm of an already corrupt system deeper into places they have no right to go.
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