U.S. tech companies unite behind Apple ahead of iPhone encryption ruling (updated)
03/03/2016 18:54
(Adds details on other companies and individuals supporting
Apple)
By Jim Finkle
March 3 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google,
Facebook Inc FB.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and about a dozen
other Internet companies will file a joint legal brief on
Thursday asking a judge to support Apple Inc AAPL.O in its
encryption battle with the U.S. government, sources familiar
with the companies' plans said.
The effort is a rare display of unity and support for the
iPhone maker from companies which are competitors in many areas,
and shows the breadth of Silicon Valley's opposition to the
government's anti-encryption effort.
The group plans to file what is known as an amicus brief - a
form of comment from outside groups common in complex cases - to
the Riverside, California, federal judge Sheri Pym. She will
rule on Apple's appeal of a court order that would force it to
create software to unlock an iPhone associated with last
December's shootings in San Bernardino.
Mozilla, maker of the Firefox web browser, said it was
joining in the effort along with online planning tool maker
Evernote and messaging app firms Snapchat and WhatsApp. Photo
sharing service Pinterest and online storage firm Dropbox are
also participating.
"We stand against the use of broad authorities to undermine
the security of a company's products," Dropbox General Counsel
Ramsey Homsany said in a statement.
Networking leader Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O said it
expected to address the court on Apple's behalf, but did not say
whether it was joining with the large group of companies.
Semiconductor maker Intel Corp INTC.O plans to file a
brief of its own in support of Apple, said Chris Young, senior
vice president and general manager for Intel Security Group.
"We believe that tech companies need to have the ability to
build and design their products as needed, and that means that
we can't have the government mandating how we build and design
our products," Young said in an interview.
The Stanford Law School for Internet and Society filed a
separate brief on Thursday morning on behalf of a group of
well-known experts on iPhone security and encryption, including
Charlie Miller, Dino Dai Zovi, Bruce Schneier and Jonathan
Zdziarski.
"The dangers of forcing companies to denigrate the security
of their products and of allowing law enforcement to commandeer
consumer devices for surveillance purposes are too great," the
brief said.
Privacy advocacy groups the American Civil Liberties Union,
Access Now and the Wickr Foundation filed briefs on Wednesday in
support of Apple before Thursday's deadline set by Pym.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N16A1E0
Salihin Kondoker, whose wife Anies Kondoker was injured in
the San Bernardino attack, also wrote on Apple's behalf, saying
he shared the company's fear that the software the government
wants Apple to create to unlock the phone could be used to break
into millions of other phones.
"I believe privacy is important and Apple should stay firm
in their decision," the letter said. "Neither I, nor my wife,
want to raise our children in a world where privacy is the
tradeoff for security."
Briefs are also expected in support of the government.
Stephen Larson, a former federal judge, told Reuters last
week that he is working on a brief with victims of the San
Bernardino shooting who want the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation to be able to access the data on the phone used by
Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters. "They were targeted by
terrorists, and they need to know why, how this could happen,"
Larson said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N161055
The fight between Apple and the government became public
last month when the FBI obtained a court order requiring Apple
to write new software and take other measures to disable
passcode protection and allow access to Farook's iPhone.
Apple has pushed back, arguing that such a move would set a
dangerous precedent and threaten customer security. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N16424R
The clash has intensified a long-running debate over how much
law enforcement and intelligence officials should be able to
monitor digital communications.
Law enforcement officials have said that Farook and his
wife, Tashfeen Malik, were inspired by Islamist militants when
they shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others last Dec. 2
at a holiday party. Farook and Malik were later killed in a
shootout with police and the FBI said it wants to read the data
on Farook's phone to investigate any links with militant groups.
Earlier this week, a Brooklyn judge ruled that the
government had overstepped its authority by seeking similar
assistance from Apple in a drug case. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N16825R
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by
Dustin Volz, Dan Levine, Heather Somerville, Sarah McBride,
Julia Love in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Grant
McCool and Bill Rigby)
((dan.levine@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 348-4726;))
Keywords: APPLE ENCRYPTION/