Vol. 80/No. 9 March 7, 2016
FBI demand to hack iPhone is
part of attack on political rights
Seeking to gain access to data on the phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two self-proclaimed supporters of Islamic State who carried out a terror attack that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last December, the court said Apple must assist FBI agents to “bypass or erase the auto-erase function” on the phone.
IPhones can be set to erase all data after 10 failed password attempts, a protection against theft or intrusion.
Apple CEO Tim Cook condemned the court order Feb. 16, calling it “an overreach by the U.S. government.”
If the government can force Apple to unlock an iPhone, Cook said, it “could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”
Federal court proceedings Feb. 23 revealed the Justice Department is demanding Apple unlock at least nine other phones, and Apple is fighting the demands on at least seven of them.
This is part of efforts by Washington, Paris and other imperialist powers to use revulsion against Islamic State terror assaults to erode the political rights of working people, as well as step up spying and harassment of Muslims and mosques.
Government agencies have already ramped up surveillance of phone and Internet communication.
“Stop saying the world is ending,” FBI Director James Comey wrote in a Feb. 21 press release. The case “is about the victims and justice,” he said. Some technology “creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure — privacy and safety. That tension should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living.”
Apple has complied with thousands of court orders to release data backed up on its iCloud, but refuses to create a way to disable the iPhone’s security feature.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International defended Apple. Facebook executives also said such government demands “create a chilling precedent.”
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