There has been a lot of back and forth in the news about the FBI v. Apple court case. If you’ve been hiding under a rock these past few weeks, I’ll fill you in on the details.
The gist: The Federal Bureau of Investigation requested Apple’s help in unlocking the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre.
Apple refused, saying that it would have to create new software in order to unlock the phone. Apple also claimed that unlocking the phone would be a violation of several laws. The main one being its privacy laws.
The FBI refused to take no for an answer and took Apple to court. The Department of Justice later dropped the case, claiming a third-party successfully accessed the data.
Many people are upset and feel as though this is just the beginning of heightened government interference. I disagree and think Apple is being quite selfish.
Apple argues that helping the FBI unlock the phone could potentially violate the privacy of other Apple users. Although Apple makes some valid points, they do not seem to understand the magnitude of what their cooperation could mean for the country. It all really boils down to determining the cost of saving human lives.
If violating someone’s privacy could save hundreds, maybe even thousands, of lives then violate away. The safety of the American people is worth way more than the government “possibly” being able to see what’s going on, on your phone.
I don’t understand why people are so upset. It’s not as if this will be an everyday thing. This is a special situation for a special circumstance. If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.
Apple’s argument that if they do it for one phone they would have to do it for all is also completely bogus. The government doesn’t have to gain control of the software. They just want access to Farook’s information. They are not asking Apple to create the software and then give it to the government.
This situation bothers me for a number of reasons but the main reason is that Apple claims that the 1782 All Writs Law, the law the FBI structured its case around, says that the law can only be enforced if the cooperation is not a burden to the company.
How can it be a burden to potentially save lives? If you can do anything to save just one human life then you should do it. It’s not a burden or an inconvenience, it’s your duty to the American people. Who is to say that this phone couldn’t lead to more details of other terrorist attacks that are in the planning stage?
Wouldn’t you want to stop an attack if you could? What if one of your loved ones perished in a fiery death? I am willing to bet trillions of dollars that you would sit at that funeral thinking you could have prevented this.
Furthermore, if Apple feels that the creation of this software would make other government agencies seek out help then maybe they should look at this as a way to help the economy.
There are countless stories on the news about a lack of jobs for the American public. Go ahead and create the software as well as a separate division to help monitor and help the agencies. It would create more jobs for Americans.
