Recently, Apple has been in the news for the fight with the FBI for Apple to unlock a phone that was owned by one the of San Bernardino shooters in order to find evidence for the case. However, Apple would not unlock the phone due to privacy policies that the company felt it needed to uphold. Consequently, this caused the FBI to seek out other measures in order to unlock the phone. With the help of an outside company, the FBI was able to unlock the phone and no longer needed Apple to do so.
While this may seem like a problem solved, Apple and other companies software designers see it in a different way. They claim that now phone companies will only increase their security even further creating an arms race to further their security and keep the government out, while the government is furthering their procedures to be able to get in. Even companies such as Snapchat and Facebook have increased their security in light of this event with Apple.
This is a tough situation for both parties to be in. The government wants to ensure the safety and justice of the American people, while Apple and similar companies want to ensure the privacy of their customers.
Where do you think the line should be drawn? Do you think Apple should have given up the information or do you think the government did not have a right in finding a malfunction in the software to ultimately unlock the phone? Do you think Apple's sales or popularity will suffer because of this event or will they flourish as consumers will get even more advanced encryption of their data with newer products?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-the-fight-between-apple-and-the-fbi-is-just-getting-started/ar-BBr5sJU
It's difficult to say who will win this "arms race" but I feel like Apple has a right to protect its customers privacy and has no obligation to the government to give information except those required by law. The government should focus on expanding the law rather than trying to outpace Apple in technological terms. And if anything else this arms race will at least lead to an improvement in technology which will increase the productivity of our economy.
ReplyDeleteThe government should be able to find other evidence rather than using cell phone records. It's sad that there is now problems between the government and apple though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where the line should be drawn... This seems like an issue that should be solved once and for all in the Supreme Court. Privacy is very important to me, but so is safety. This is why I tend to side with the FBI in this case. That being said, I do not believe that the FBI should simply be able to hack into anyones phone at any point. I think that they should only be able to do this by producing some kind of search warrant.
ReplyDeleteIf a legal search warrant was put on the phone, I believe that Apple should have unlocked it. In such a serious instance, safety seems more important than privacy. It will be interesting to see what this situation does to the innovation of technology and privacy standards in the United States. I foresee this being an issue in the future, as well. Soon enough the government is going to have to face the problem in a less evasive way.
ReplyDeleteWhen people's lives have the potential to be in danger like in this case, I think Apple should open it as well. I also agree that this is just the start, and I've heard some speculation that the government knew coming in to this case that it was very likely they wouldn't get Apple's support. It seems like the government wanted to establish this as the first case among many that could effect one's privacy in our new technology driven world. I believe there will be similar cases that appear in the future. I don't believe that this will harm Apple, if anything it has brought attention to their product and stressed how secure their devices really are. With that being said, I don't think it will boost Apple's sales much if at all.
ReplyDeleteApple has to stay true to their mission statement on which brand loyalty is built upon so if they opened this one iPhone then they'd have to do so for all other locked phones. Sales will be fine because this event doesn't really have any direct effect on the devices they sell to consumers so sales will be as they were.
ReplyDeleteI give credit to apple for not breaking their promise to their customers and keeping there records safe and private. but this is a hard because the FBI is just trying to find out valuable information for an investigation so as for apple what is the right thing to do?
ReplyDelete