As most of you probably know by now the FBI has demanded that Apple build a new version of iOS with a backdoor in place. This iOS version is ostensibly only meant to be used on an iPhone 5C owned by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

Tim Cook, Apples CEO, has publicly refused this.

First off, let me say that I agree with and fully support Cook in this. Good work Tim!

Second, if it wasn’t so serious it would be quite funny that suddenly private corporations go all in on defending civil liberties from the government. Should the government be the ones doing the defending of liberties?

This is a really important line in the sand than Cook is drawing. I’m not sure that Apple can uphold their stance in the long-run, but I hope I’m wrong and that they can.

As other people have said, the FBI has chosen this case wise to get the legal precedent they want. Nobody sympathizes with the San Bernardino terrorists so it’s easy to make a straw man argument about Apple being evil for being more interested in protecting terrorists than ”the American people”. But we need to realize that this is not about the San Bernardino case. This is about US federal agencies wanting the technical help and legal precedent to do whatever they want with the private data of whoever they want.

Where are the other tech giants? Why aren’t Microsoft, Facebook and Google lining up next to Apple? So far the only CEO that I’ve seen taking a firm stance on this is Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp

I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple’s efforts to protect user data and couldn’t agree more with everything said in their Customer Letter today. We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake.

Some links

Here are some good articles on the topic:

• ACLU comment on FBI effort to force Apple to unlock iPhones
• Why the FBI’s request to Apple will affect civil rights for a generation (Rich Mogull, Macworld)
• It’s not about this 5c – marco.org
• iGotYourBack (Daniel Jalkut, Bitsplitting.org)

Or just look at ”the front page” of Daring Fireball. John has collected a lot of good links and quotes.