The F.B.I. and Department of Justice are so concerned about Apple’s pro-privacy iOS encryption that senior officials advocated taking Apple to court over the issue, according to a new report.
The clash with Cupertino was reportedly sparked by an investigation this summer — “involving guns and drugs” — in which a court order was obtained, demanding that Apple provide real time iMessages exchanged by iPhone-using suspects. Due to the stringent security measures featured on iOS 8, Apple responded that it could not comply due to the advanced encryption used by the company.
Thankfully, the decision was taken not to pursue legal action. However, the case once again demonstrates the opposition that exists within government to Apple’s stance on user privacy.
In a previous open letter, F.B.I. director James Comey argued that the top-notch security on devices like the iPhone have potential to aid terrorist groups like ISIS.
Tim Cook, meanwhile, has argued that Apple is taking a moral stance by not mining user data. In an interview with the Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., Cook commented that:
“None of us should accept that the government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information. This is a basic human right. We all have a right to privacy. We shouldn’t give it up. We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details.”
Apple has also put its name to an open letter to President Obama asking him to reject anti-encryption proposals.
The decision not to take Apple to court over its pro-encryption stance means this case will continue to rumble on in the background. It’s certainly far from over, however.
Source: New York Times
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
12 responses to “F.B.I. considered taking Apple to court over encryption fears”
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If you believe it.
Not really revealing information. Of course the justice department would consider court action. Nope, the better action is for the government to find a legal workaround.
The key is stored on an iPhone itself and there is already a legal way to obtain it – through court order. Because of that, there will be no other legal way to do that. And it is unlikely that the federal government will force Apple to change that practice of keeping the key at the physical device itself. Because if they do, they will get another backlash from the public. That will be bad since they barely fixed the previous PR issue about NSA and I don’t think they want to do through the same stuff again.
There is a big section section you didn’t mention and I talked about over at gizmodo:
“With Apple, the encryption and decryption are done by the phones at either end of the conversation; Apple does not keep copies of the message unless one of the users loads it into iCloud, where it is not encrypted. (In the drug and gun investigation this summer, Apple eventually turned over some stored iCloud messages. While they were not the real-time texts the government most wanted, officials said they saw it as a sign of cooperation.)”
This seems to state that while apple cannot decrypt imessages in real time due to end-to-end encryption, as soon as it is backed up to icloud, apple is able to access them. That also seems to state that once you make an icloud back up, your information is no longer secure. It appears as though Apple keeps the private keys…meaning they actually do hold the keys to the kingdom. If those keys were ever stolen or cracked then security would be meaningless.
It’s more likely the device key is used by the device to unlock the data and create an iCloud backup, that is then sent to iCloud using an account-level key stored by Apple. And if loaded onto a device, unlocked using the account key and re-locked using a device key. Otherwise iCloud backups wouldn’t be useful except when restoring a back up on the same device that made it.
This just sounds like another lazy attempt by the Justice Department to get private companies to do their heavy lifting for them. It’s also a valuable warning for all of us about what and how Justice wants to be able to collect from the manufacturers of our products. We already know that telecoms rolled over for them long ago. Do you think Toyota is going to refuse to provide data stored in your car? Or Amana won’t tell them your shopping habits with the data in your next “smart” refrigerator? Or the cable company isn’t already giving them your TV and internet habits? Apple insulated themselves from this. Don’t expect the rest of them to do it; they want to make money off your info.
“Apple has also put its name to an open letter to President Obama asking him to reject anti-encryption proposals” — Hahaha! How on earth are people still optimistic considering how Anti-American he has been? He sees Americans as having too many rights as it is, and will do nothing for the people of the country, unless the country is something other than the US. The blinders are thick with the apple crowd.
Wait, what? So once we finally get decent privacy options that we need in todays digital world, being constantly in danger becoming a victim of cyber crimes, the FBI is trying to get rid of it?
That’s like being asked to disable my home security system while i am away, because it is too damn good in fighting off criminals.
I’ve been in law enforcement for the past 24 years and governments are very corrupt local and up. If they want something get a search warrant, if a judge is willing to put his signature on it, then go get what you’re looking for… However, after recent revelations of that last few years, Snowden, AT&T secret room and so forth it is well known that the government does what it wants regardless of the law or constitution. So, now with getting their hand caught in the cookie jar they still want to power to do whatever they want. Funny, growing up if I did something wrong I got punished and learned not to do it anymore and be a better person.
If this is so important to them, following the rules might help their cause or put this effort into lobbying to change the constitution so that it’s not illegal. They know that will never happen so they feel free to trample on peoples privacy and rights and since it’s the federal government no one will be punished.
The Constitution isn’t at issue here. The issue is tech companies doing what they have the right to do which is to enable their customers to encrypt data on their devices. If the encryption key is on the device that means the government would have to seize the device from a suspect thereby letting him know that the government is onto him. Being a law enforcement officer you should know that to successfully prosecute a case in court requires evidence which in most cases should be substantial in order to meet the “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” burden. For the government the issue is gathering evidence and building a case. As you know the suspect holds all the cards. All he has to do is to commit his crimes and tell the government catch me if you can.