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DoJ Wants Apple To Decrypt 12 More iPhones (macrumors.com)

Posted by timothy on from the but-each-one-is-a-one-time-exception dept.

tlhIngan writes: The Wall Street Journal (paywalled) is reporting that the Department of Justice is seeking Apple's help in decrypting 12 other iPhones that may contain crime-related evidence. The cases are not identified, though a list of the 12 phones in question has come out, but it is not known what level of Apple assistance is required (i.e., how many of those cases are waiting on the FBI request for special firmware to be developed and to be used on "one more phone"). It appears Tim Cook's assertion that hundreds of requests are waiting on this software may not be a fabrication, and the goal is not about just one phone, but to set a precedent to unlock more phones. As TechDirt (which also lists those 12 cases, a list which certainly does not encompass all the phones the Feds would like to peer into) puts it, "[O]nce again, Director Comey was flat out lying when he claimed the FBI has no interest in setting a precedent."

5 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. The duck quacked by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tim was right: gov't wants to open Pandora's box.

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    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:The duck quacked by erapert · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why is this modded funny? Isn't there a mod option for "deadly serious" or "too real to be funny"?

  2. Hipster Terrorist? by wkwilley2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The San Bernadino phone was just the start, pretty soon, it will be "DOJ wants the backdoor keys for all your iPhones"

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    Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
    1. Re:Hipster Terrorist? by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What is amazing to me is this isn't even a fourth amendment/privacy/fifth amendment/rights of the accused/exclusionary evidence/ type question. Its a question of very very basic freedom.

      Apple sells a phone, they are not necessarily in any on going business relationship with the owner of said phone after that happens. The DOJ argues though that they should be able to phone them up and demand they create something which does not today exist (an unlock tool or firmware without protections). So Apple who was not a participant in any crime, an accessory, or in material possession of evidence etc now must act.

      This quite literally sets the precedent the DOJ can conscript and individual or organization who has ever sold or manufactured something to assist in an investigation! We are supposedly not slaves! This very concept should be offensive to all freedom loving Americans and frankly anyone who isn't siding with Apple on this "Hates Freedom."

      Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. --William Pitt

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      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  3. Camels nose ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This will open the floodgates of making all of these companies be responsible for developing tools for law enforcement to demand access. And then law enforcement will demand they simply be given those tools to avoid the whole pesky court system and due process.

    Welcome to the future, where law enforcement wants it to be illegal for you to have information they cannot access, and failure to allow yourself to be spied on is a criminal act. You can't have any freedom and security because they need to remove it to protect your freedom and security.

    You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide, citizen.

    In Soviet America, phone unlocks you.

    But keep telling yourselves you don't live in a surveillance society, one day you'll believe you have always been at war with Eurasia. Failure to comply is now a thoughtcrime.

    What happened to those oaths to defend and uphold the Constitution, instead of wiping your ass on it?

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