Apple and the Justice Department are at loggerheads, with neither side willing to give an inch in what’s shaping up as a monumental legal battle over data privacy.
And Congress — which can, and should, resolve the problem — is sitting back, refusing to clarify the thorny issues involved.
The feds have been trying for two months to unlock the iPhone 5c belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14 in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
The FBI wants to plug an 18-minute gap in his movements that day and to discover any accomplices. To get whatever’s on the phone, it wants Apple to turn off the function that automatically erases all data once too many wrong passwords are used. Now a federal judge has ordered Apple to bypass its own security functions and access the data.
But the company says it has no such “key” — and creating one could make every iPhone vulnerable to hackers. It vows to resist this “overreach by the US government.”
Apple may have a point — but try explaining to the victims’ families why you’re determined to protect a terrorist’s secrets.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton sums up the law-enforcement perspective: “No device, no car and no apartment should be beyond the reach of a court-ordered search warrant” — especially in the investigation of a terrorist attack or threat.
Apple answers back that honest citizens have good use for these protections — which can prevent crime by thwarting hackers.
For now, the legal fight revolves around a law dating to 1789: Does it let the feds compel Apple to build that “key”?
Yet the courts shouldn’t have to try translating a 227-year-old statute into the Internet era. It’s Congress’ job to clear things up.