Apple CEO Tim Cook has said no to a judge’s order to help the FBI hack into the iPhone of a dead terrorism suspect.Luca Bruno/The Associated Press
Apple Inc.'s refusal to help the United States government hack into the iPhone of a dead terrorism suspect is a difficult but necessary decision. In the end, the tech company has to weigh a concrete threat to its customers' privacy against the ambiguous needs of the police.
Apple and companies like it build smartphones and tablets with the promise to customers that the personal information they keep on their devices will be protected from hackers and prying eyes. It is a critical aspect of the companies' sales pitches, and also a responsibility in the digital age.
Once a customer has purchased one of Apple's most recent phones and tablets, its contents are inaccessible even to the company that manufactured it without the user's permission. Any repeated attempt at access that isn't authorized by the user causes the devices to automatically erase all of their contents.
A judge in California, however, has ordered Apple to bypass this security system on the iPhone of Syed Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people in a mass shooting in San Bernardino in December. The FBI asked for the order because it believes – though it does not know for certain – that there could be information on the phone that will help explain the shooters' motives and possibly lead to accomplices. The police are on a fishing expedition, looking for any clues, anywhere.
Apple won't comply for a simple reason: If it creates a bypass around the security system of one iPhone, it is necessarily doing so for all iPhones. This would be a violation of its promise to protect customers' privacy.
In fact, it would blow a hole in expectations of privacy. Once such a breach is made, it can't be unmade. Customers would know it and might lose confidence in Apple products, along with those of any other manufacturer met with a similar government order.
There is also the broader issue of governments' rapacious hunger for private citizens' personal data. If Apple yields to the U.S. government, there can be little doubt that other governments will come demanding the same thing. All they will need to do is raise the charged issue of fighting terrorism to make their case.
It's better, then, for Apple to keep saying no. It has co-operated with the FBI as much as it can, but should go no further.