Justice Department hopes to overturn Apple’s privacy win in New York

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
The government would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling iKids.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to overturn a ruling protecting Apple from unlocking the iPhone at the center of a New York drug case. The recent ruling from a New York magistrate judge stated that the government can’t compel Apple to unlock an iPhone involved in a criminal investigation, using the All Writs Act.

So the decision must have been wrong, of course!

The government resubmitted its arguments on Monday, citing the fact that the All Writs Act has been used successfully against in Apple in its current California standoff with the FBI — although Apple has yet to unlock the phone in question, and is still arguing its case.

The Justice Department is also claiming the iPhone in the New York case hearing runs an older version of iOS, which Apple has agreed to help crack in previous instances — although I wasn’t able to find more details about this argument.

Judge James Orenstein’s sided with Apple in his initial verdict, arguing that:

Apple is not doing anything to keep law enforcement agents from conducting their investigation. Apple has not conspired with [defendant Jun] Feng to make the data on his device inaccessible …

Indeed, the government’s complaint is precisely that Apple is doing nothing at all. If Feng had not engaged the passcode security on his device, or if the government had been able to secure an order compelling Feng to unlock the phone on pain of contempt sanctions, the government might well be in a position to seize the iPhone’s data without Apple’s assistance.

As I’ve written about numerous times before, the big issue with Apple’s current privacy standoff with the government comes down to whether helping to hack an iPhone would be a one-off event, or whether it would begin a downward trajectory into mass surveillance.

Although some (including, disappointingly, Bill Gates) have argued that it would only signal the former, even FBI director James Comey has now admitted that the outcome of the San Bernadino case is going to set a precedent for future court hearings on the subject.

Which is exactly what is being demonstrated right now in New York, as one questionable “win” against Apple (which even the United Nations disagrees with) is now being used to try and lever open other cases.

Source: Reuters

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