Ever since Apple’s CEO Tim Cook made it obvious that the company would be fighting a court order to access an iPhone 5c, high-profile names have come to support the Cupertino-based company in its decision.
Just yesterday, a series of companies, including AT&T, Airbnb, eBay, Twitter, and many others stepped forward to file “friends of the court” briefs to officially support Apple in itsfight with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over accessing an iPhone 5c connected to the San Bernardino shooting last year. Apple has argued that creating a backdoor into iOS would lead to nefarious individuals being able to access the software, but also that the decision should not be made by courts, but instead by Congress — a sentiment repeated by many supporting Apple.
Now Apple has yet another name to add to its growing list of supports in the matter. The United Nations’ High Commissioner on human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, has come forward with an official statement, coming to the conclusion that authorities are risking opening a “Pandora’s Box that could have extremely damaging implications,” to millions of citizens, both for their physical and financial security.
“In order to address a security-related issue related to encryption in one case, the authorities risk unlocking a Pandora’s Box that could have extremely damaging implications for the human rights of many millions of people, including their physical and financial security.”
He would go on to add that forcing Apple to create a backdoor would simply leave it open for authoritarian regimes or criminal hackers, and that the access would not be limited to just Apple or the U.S. government. Moreover, he added that the court’s decision, which could set a legal precedent moving forward, could mean even broader implications of leaving citizens’ information and security vulnerable.
“It is potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers. There have already been a number of concerted efforts by authorities in other States to force IT and communications companies such as Google and Blackberry to expose their customers to mass surveillance.”
As should be expected for a member of the United Nations, the scope of the FBI’s assertion to access an individual device, by forcing access through software, has global implications. He focused in part on the fact that encryption is important not only for citizens, but also for whistleblowers, journalists, political dissidents, and human rights activists.
This is a conversation that will be going on for quite some time, even if a decision on how encryption should be handled finally arrives.
[via AppleInsider; United Nations]
“In order to address a security-related issue related to encryption in one case, the authorities risk unlocking a Pandora’s Box that could have extremely damaging implications for the human rights of many millions of people, including their physical and financial security.”
“It is potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers. There have already been a number of concerted efforts by authorities in other States to force IT and communications companies such as Google and Blackberry to expose their customers to mass surveillance.”
