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FBI VS APPLE: WHO WILL WIN? SECURITY OR PRIVACY?

Is there more to come?


Apple has been pitted against the Justice Department recently over the issue of unlocking a cell phone used by the San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook. This comes after Silicon Valley and the Justice Department had made progress to help stop terrorism. However, earlier this week the FBI withdrew from legal action because they claim that they found a way to access the data without Apple. For some background on the case, see see Globalo’s in-depth coverage of the case!

Here are the facts of the case:

Why is there such a fight?

Lets examine the issue from both sides:

FBI:

Apple:

Given that Farook and his wife smashed their personal phones, the likelihood of finding anything was extremely low, and the FBI recognizes that this would have been a landmark case. It would have been a grave setback in the FBI’s fight against encryption if there was nothing found. Maybe the FBI is holding off and waiting for a better case to set this precedent.

Since members of law enforcement have said that they are facing this issue as well, you can be sure that this would not be a one-off request. The FBI has withdrawn for now, but Apple cannot rest easy, yet. The FBI will definitely be back, and with a better case next time.

Click here for background on the shooting

Click here to learn more about the woman behind the man, his fiancee, Tashfeen Malik!

Image Credit: By Kelvinsong (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons