Over the past week I have spent time reading about the conflict between Apple and the FBI. These articles brought a few new perspectives, but I have continued to stand by my original opinion and first instinct. I do not think that companies should implement backdoors for the benefit of the government. Apple is first and foremost responsible for protecting the privacy of its users. Apple has always been highly concerned with the safety of its users. This topic is important to me for a few reasons. The first being that I will be an employee of Apple in the fall. I would love to be a part of a company that holds the same values as me. I have always been very impressed by Apple’s security and privacy policy. They keep all of their customer information secure even inside the company. They even keep information separated when it would be potentially useful to their own apps.
On the other hand, I understand the FBI’s request. The FBI is only trying to protect the country. I will not pretend to be an expert in what the FBI does, but I tend to support the FBI using surveillance or encroaching on the average person’s privacy if it is in an effort to keep a majority of people from being harmed. My reasoning for supporting Apple is not for fear of Big Brother. I do not even disagree with the All Rights Act. However, I do not think that the government is looking far enough forward at how much damage could be caused. I think that there is a large amount of paranoia and my reasoning has much more to do with the power of that kind of backdoor. We have already seen several instances of information being hacked. Sony and Target are some recent examples of large scale hacks. By creating a backdoor for unlocking a phone we are simply putting a timer on the next time that millions of people are targeted. While it might help in this one case, and has potential for finding more terrorist networks, I think it poses a much larger threat in the future. My stance here is actually an attempt to prevent larger attacks, not necessarily to protect privacy. I think that the vast majority of the country does not fully understand the risks that come with the continued loss of privacy in tech. I am already somewhat wary of the amount of information that Google and Facebook have stored about me. It seems inevitable that many people will one day be targeted using those vast databases of information.
I believe that Apple’s letter is very well written and explains that this is not the correct way to go about the investigation. I think the Conscription of Apple’s Software Engineers article is the most insightful. Specifically the sentence: “That strikes me as a shortsighted tradeoff.” A shortsighted tradeoff is exactly what the FBI wants. If they truly want to protect their country they would see how terribly dangerous what they are asking Apple to do would be in the next few years. This software would inevitably end up in the wrong hands and when it does, the effects could be widespread and disastrous.
isabellehillberg 