Roger Fingas
Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter are all expected to file amicus briefs in support of Apple, which is refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook over wider data privacy concerns.
Google, Facebook and Twitter's participation was revealed by sources for Dow Jones, according to CNBC. Sources for the Wall Street Journal — which is owned by Dow Jones — added that "several top tech companies" will be filing briefs, with some submitting a joint brief next week. Microsoft has publicly confirmed plans to file, the Journal said.
Executives at Google and Facebook have already expressed public support for Apple, which is looking to vacate a judge's order demanding it provide software to bypass the passcode retry limit in iOS. Farook's phone is set to auto-erase its contents once that limit is hit, making it impossible for the FBI to brute-force an unlock without losing evidence.
Apple maintains that creating such a tool would compromise iOS, in part since it could be used as precedent to force broader cooperation not only from Apple, but other tech companies as well. The government could in theory compel Apple to craft software for other purposes, like surveillance.
Apple's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, will testify in front of a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the matter on March 1. Among other people appearing in front of the Judiciary Committee will be FBI Director James Comey, who has regularly argued for backdoors in encrypted platforms.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
22 Comments
Right now, I'm glad it is Apple under pressure, because it took the rest of the tech companies a long ass time to file those briefs in support of Apple's position. Can you imagine, if it were a Nexus phone what might have happened? Maybe Google would have just gone and written the code to break encryption before they knew what they had done! Maybe the FBI should have started with an an Android or MS phone and they would have had their precedent. Too bad FBI made a public issue out of this when they could have continued working with Apple behind the scenes. Apple has thought out this issue ahead of time and that's a good thing.
Add Amazon to that list of companies backing Apple.
Where the hell is this guy ( http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/24/news/apple-government-employees-maricopa-county/ ) gonna get phones for his county now? us.gov gonna buy Palm tech from HP?-C
I wonder... how many of the 10 attempts the FBI has used? Nine?
I find it funny spyware companies like Goog are hoping on the hype train. Free advertising and good reputation right?
Apple should tell Goog "No thanks", hop off the bandwagon.