Lots More Writing about the FBI vs. Apple
I have written two posts on the case, and at the bottom of those essays are lots of links to other essays written by other people. Here are more links.
If you read just one thing on the technical aspects of this case, read Susan Landau’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. It’s very comprehensive, and very good.
Others are testifying, too.
Apple is fixing the vulnerability. The Justice Department wants Apple to unlock nine more phones.
Apple prevailed in a different iPhone unlocking case.
Why the First Amendment is a bad argument. And why the All Writs Act is the wrong tool.
Dueling poll results: Pew Research reports that 51% side with the FBI, while a Reuters poll reveals that “forty-six percent of respondents said they agreed with Apple’s position, 35 percent said they disagreed and 20 percent said they did not know,” and that “a majority of Americans do not want the government to have access to their phone and Internet communications, even if it is done in the name of stopping terror attacks.”
One of the worst possible outcomes from this story is that people stop installing security updates because they don’t trust them. After all, a security update mechanism is also a mechanism by which the government can install a backdoor. Here’s one essay that talks about that. Here’s another.
Cory Doctorow comments on the FBI’s math denialism. Yochai Benkler sees this as a symptom of a greater breakdown in government trust. More good commentary from Jeff Schiller, Julian Sanchez, and Jonathan Zdziarski. Marcy Wheeler’s comments. Two posts by Dan Wallach. Michael Chertoff and associates weigh in on the side of security over surveillance.
Here’s a Catholic op-ed on Apple’s side. Bill Gates sides with the FBI. And a great editorial cartoon.
Here’s high snark from Stewart Baker. Baker asks some very good (and very snarky) questions. But the questions are beside the point. This case isn’t about Apple or whether Apple is being hypocritical, any more than climate change is about Al Gore’s character. This case is about the externalities of what the government is asking for.
One last thing to read.
Okay, one more, on the more general back door issue.
EDITED TO ADD (3/2): Wall Street Journal editorial. And here’s video from the House Judiciary Committee hearing. Skip to around 34:50 to get to the actual beginning.
EDITED TO ADD (3/3): Interview with Rep. Darrell Issa. And at the RSA Conference this week, both Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Microsoft’s chief legal officer Brad Smith sided with Apple against the FBI.
EDITED TO ADD (3/4): Comments on the case from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
EDITED TO ADD (3/7): Op ed by Apple. And an interesting article on the divide in the Obama Administration.
EDITED TO ADD (3/10): Another good essay.
EDITED TO ADD (3/13): President Obama’s comments on encryption: he wants back doors. Cory Doctorow reports.
Clive Robinson • March 1, 2016 7:30 AM
And so the dance continues, at each round the FBI appears to lose ground not just with public opinions but in their honesty, thus trustworthyness.
As I’ve observed Hoovers ghost is still walking the FBI HQ corridors…
Just think what might have remained unknown if the FBI / DOJ had not told the press even before the magistrate had inked their paper…
Which has the obvious rider of “What is yet to be known?”.