The whole of Silicon Valley seems to be converging behind Apple in its fight against the US government. It’s been a week filled with headlines about Apple’s stand against court orders and now we have even bigger news. Major tech giants including Google’s parent Alphabet, Facebook and Microsoft are reportedly planning to file a joint motion supporting Apple.
It all started with one letter from Apple CEO Tim Cook to the company’s customers which described how the government wanted the tech firm to help the FBI crack into the iPhone 5c apparently belonging to a terrorist suspect. Cook explained how this backdoor, the FBI was requesting, could risk user privacy of millions all over the planet. The company received mass support from consumers all over the world following this development.
We saw the Cupertino giant take steps to make iPhone security even tighter in order to show the FBI that it isn’t about to back down so easily. The company will apparently be ditching the passcode-free DFU mode and make iCloud even more secure.
The company on the 25th of February filed its first legal motion in the case stating that what the FBI demands is “unconstitutional,” “unprecedented” with “no support of the law.” Following this, many tech giants have joined hands in supporting Apple in its trial against the Justice Department.
A statement from Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith on Thursday clearly points towards the fact that the Redmond giant will be backing its long time rival in this motion. Twitter is also all in for Apple in this but it isn’t yet clear if the microblogging website will take part in the joint endeavor.
Talking in favour of Apple, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said last week on Twitter that while Google provides user data to law enforcement under court orders, “that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data. Could be a troubling precedent.”
We can’t yet predict which way the pendulum will go, but for one, Apple surely has the support of the masses in this fight between national security and personal privacy.
