There has been a lot of commentary about Apple’s decision to not comply with a court order to help the FBI unlock the iPhone that was owned by one of the terrorists in last year’s massacre in San Bernardino. Although several politicians have slammed Apple’s decision, some major figures in the tech world have stepped up to the plate to support Apple CEO Tim Cook. Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter on Wednesday to support Cook’s position while saying that he thought it would be irresponsible to force companies to enable third parties to hack their devices.
RELATED: The FBI has laid a clever trap for Apple
Here are all of Pichai’s tweets in order:
1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
2/5 We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
3/5 We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
4/5 But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
5/5 Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
The crux of his argument here is that the government is basically asking tech companies to make their products less secure. The FBI has asked Apple to make a less secure version of iOS that it can use to brute force the passcode on the dead shooter’s iPhone without any risk of wiping the device’s data. Apple is worried that once this software gets into the hands of the FBI, it will also likely get into the hands of hackers who will be able to use it for nefarious purposes.
No one is saying that Apple, Google and other tech companies shouldn’t assist law enforcement officials in their investigations. However, there is a balance that needs to be struck between helping with investigations and protecting customers’ safety online. Right now both Apple and Google agree that forcing companies to undermine their own devices’ security doesn’t meet that standard.
