As if the United Nation’s support wasn’t enough to show the tide is turning in Apple’s favor in its encryption standoff with the FBI, a newly-published poll suggests that registered U.S. voters are now evenly split over the year’s biggest tech story.
The poll asked respondents which scenario they were more worried about: either that the U.S. won’t go far enough in monitoring the communications of terror suspects, or that it would go too far and violate the privacy of citizens.
Approximately 47 percent of respondents answered that they thought the government won’t go far enough in monitoring communications, while 44 percent thought the U.S. would go too far and violate the privacy of citizens.
Republicans were more likely to support government monitoring of communications, in the name of national security, while Democrats were more evenly divided on the issue. Interestingly, independent voters who identify with neither major party supported Apple with a 2-to-1 margin.
While this still shows that the U.S. is undecided on this complex issue, it certainly suggests that Apple is slowly winning over the general public. When a similar poll was run in February, well over half of respondents in the United States opposed Apple’s position in its privacy battle against the FBI — compared with just 38 percent of Americans who thought Apple should not unlock the iPhone to ensure the security of its customer’s private data.
Source: WSJ
