Tim Cook has now positioned Apple as the vanguard of personal privacy by opposing a court order seeking their assistance in investigating one of the greatest domestic terror events in this country in the last ten years. “The implications of the government’s demands are chilling…” Oh please Tim, where have you been before now? Could it be this search warrant is being served in your neighborhood, at your place of business, and your concerns for “the security of our customers” are not so benevolent? Might it rather be that any threat to corporate profits must be fought at all cost? Helping prevent the next potential terror attack isn’t sufficient justification for creating the means to unlock one cell phone because there is no way to control what may happen thereafter, Pandora’s Box will be opened, data security Armageddon is upon us.
News bulletin, search warrants are served by law enforcement every day, everywhere, all over the country, on businesses, and yes, even citizens’ homes, all the time. “Knock notice” is the requirement, but if you don’t get to the door in time, out comes the battering ram, and they are coming in. You may be in bed, in the shower, or otherwise indisposed, but none of that matters. You’re “detained” while the search is performed, and you’ll be lucky if they let you get dressed, can’t have the detainee going through a clothes drawer, might destroy evidence, threaten officer safety.
Better yet, if a “confidential reliable informant” has accused you of selling drugs, or possessing anything illegal small enough to be hidden, they can look anywhere for it. Tear off the back of the T.V., break holes in the wall, pull all the drawers out, and leave it like that, whether they find anything or not. Computers are always mentioned as a tool used for criminal activity, so those are gone, and should you have a safe in the house, you better open it or “we’ll just take it down to the station and drill it out.”
Okay, now that’s an invasion of privacy. It just doesn’t go down like that in most of the Silicon Valley. Got to get into Oakland or Richmond to see what’s really going on. But then that’s got nothing to do with Apple and its sacred customers, unless of course one of them decided to shoot to death fourteen people one afternoon. Giving up the personal information of two dead terrorists is too much to ask, it could “…undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”