Apple Inc. and F.B.I. in unequal quarrel on Unlocking the Mobile Phone of the Shooter in San Bernard

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Gabriella Demczuk / Getty

After the shooting in San Bernardino[1], California in December 2015 that has left 14 people dead and at least 20 injured, the dialogue between the digital company Apple Inc. and F.B.I. has sharpened. In order to establish further investigation on the shooters[2] concerning their potential link to Islamic extremism, the Federal agency has initiated the issuance of an order that demands Apple to unlock an encrypted iPhone owned by one of the perpetrators. As response, the company has filed a motion to the federal court in California to overturn the order since this legal decision will endanger the security of their customers[3].

Both Justice Department and F.B.I. have the White House`s full support considering the burden of the criminal act in San Bernardino. Apple`s refuse to fulfil the decryption requirements and to obtain access to the iPhone has been accepted as unreasonable[4] but it is also a fact that after the revelations[5] of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, on far-reaching U.S. government surveillance, big tech companies such as Google as Apple have adopted strong default encryption security features[6] on their products.

Photo: Paul Richards/AFP/Getty Images

The Lost Battle for U.S. Communication Privacy

Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and in many other international and regional treaties. Privacy refers to the respect for the autonomy of individuals and their rights of freedom of communication and speech through the infliction of limits on state power to intrude on that autonomy[7]. The growing expansion of information and communication technology with its capacity to collect, analyse and provide information to citizens has claimed a necessity for privacy legislation which to be responsible for the privacy of communications and the coverage of the security and privacy of all electronic forms of communication. Many European countries have already taken steps towards this demand but not the United States.

The state of privacy is not explicitly recognized in the U.S. Constitution[8]. The surveillance of mobile, oral and electronic communication for criminal investigations and national security purposes has been recognized as compulsory act in order to protect the nation. This means that records held by third parties such as financial records or telephone calling records are generally not protected unless the legislature gives a seal of approval to a specific law. Thus, the quarrel between Apple Inc. and F.B.I. appears to be lost battle for the high tech company since there is no comprehensive privacy protection law in the U.S. nor for the private sector neither for the digital users concerning their connection activities.

[1]“San Bernardino shooting updates”, Los Angeles Times, December 2015, <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-bernardino-shooting-live-updates-htmlstory.html> (04.03.2016)

[2] Varandani, S. “San Bernardino Shooting: Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik Get Muslim Burials IN FBI-Guarded Funeral”, International Business Times, December 2015, <http://www.ibtimes.com/san-bernardino-shooting-syed-rizwan-farook-tashfeen-malik-get-muslim-burials-fbi-2229577> (04.03.2016)

[3] Cook, T. “A Message to Our Customers”, Apple.com, February 2016, <http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/> (04.03.2016)

[4] Lichtblau, E. & Benner, K. “Apple Fights Order to Unlock San Bernardino Gunman`s iPhone”, The New York Times, February 2016, <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/technology/apple-timothy-cook-fbi-san-bernardino.html?_r=1> (05.03.2016)

[5] MacAskill, E. & Ackerman, S. “NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily”, The Guardian, June 2013, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order> (05.03.2016)

[6] O`Neill, H. P. “The state of encryption tools, 2 years after Snowden leaks”, The Daily Dot, June 2015, <http://www.dailydot.com/politics/encryption-since-snowden-trending-up/> (05.03.2016)

[7] Banisar, D. & Davies, S. (1999), “Global Trends in Privacy Protection”, in Journal of Computer & Information Law, Vol, XVIII, p. 7

[8] Ibid., p. 108

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