In its effort to prevent the next terrorist attack, the U.S. government wants Apple to provide it with unrestricted access to the iPhone. Apple, obviously, doesn’t want to allow anyone, whether it’s the U.S. government or someone else, with backdoor access to its mobile platform, saying that such thing would make iPhone less secure, hence less appealing to businesses requiring strong security.
On Wednesday, the CEO Tim Cook said the protection of consumer privacy is paramount for the company, and that Apple creating a program to unlock an iPhone and turning that program over to the FBI would endanger the security of the data, including personal health information.
“We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand,” Cook wrote. “Smartphones have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.”
Apple did provide the FBI with data in the company’s possession, and has also made its engineers available to advise the Bureau, but that obviously was not enough.
Tim Cook said the protection of consumer privacy is paramount for Apple.FBI wants the company to make a new version of the iOS, one that would circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation, according to Cook. “In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession,” he said, adding that the misuse of this software could cause massive problems both for Apple and its customers, as well as for the healthcare system which is increasingly embracing Apple’s products for anything from dealing with patient health records to care coordination.
Joining Apple is the digital rights group Fight for the Future which too wants the government to drop its request and is calling for nationwide protests to support the Cupertino company. Civil liberties supporters and iPhone users will rally outside Apple stores at 5:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 23.
[Via: HealthcareITnews]