In solidarity!
[h=1]Apple Gets Tech Industry Backing in iPhone Dispute, Despite Misgivings[/h]By NICK WINGFIELD and MIKE ISAAC
It is a remarkable moment for the technology industry, with many different companies and organizations rallying around a single company — Apple — in a major legal case against the United States government over privacy and security.
Those misgivings ultimately did not win the day. About 40 companies and organizations are expected to file court briefs on Thursday backing Apple as it fights a judge’s order to help law enforcement break into an iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack last year.
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Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and Yahoo are among the tech companies expected to sign on to briefs in the case, according to people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. More than 40 individuals, including prominent security experts and academics, are also planning to sign briefs, which will focus on themes like free speech, the importance of encryption and concerns about government overreach.
Photo
Mark Zuckerberg, chief of Facebook, center, at an awards presentation in Berlin last month. Facebook is expected to sign briefs supporting Apple in its case against the F.B.I. Credit Pool photo by Frank Zauritz The show of support — including briefs filed on Wednesday by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Access Now — is unusual in its breadth, showing that many in Silicon Valley believe that it could have profound implications on the trustworthiness of their products.
“Given the years of companies’ reluctance to be at the barricades around intelligence discussions, this is significant,” said Jules Polonetsky, chief executive of the Future of Privacy Forum, an industry-financed think tank in Washington.
Still, several executives at tech companies supporting Apple said they were worried that Apple had picked a fight that could end up backfiring on the rest of the industry. In the days since a magistrate judge in California ordered Apple to bypass security measures on the iPhone, lawyers in some of the companies debated these issues with one another and peers at other firms.
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All of the executives asked to remain anonymous because their deliberations were private, but their views are shared among others in Silicon Valley.
Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist with the firm Khosla Ventures, said he was a strong believer in privacy and encryption — “all the normal Silicon Valley views,” he said — but worried that Apple could lose the case, setting a legal precedent that could force other companies to compromise the security of their products for law enforcement.
“In my view, this is the wrong case to fight,” Mr. Rabois said. “There are plenty of other cases with a lot less sympathetic case for the government.”
Photo
Sundar Pichai, chief of Google, which is among the tech companies expected to support Apple in its privacy battle against the federal government. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For Mr. Rabois and others, the circumstances working against Apple include the iPhone’s connection to a terrorist attack that left 14 people dead, rather than to a less highly charged crime. Furthermore, the iPhone was owned by the employer of the gunman, Syed Rizwan Farook, which consented to a search of the device.
Apple’s defenders said the company did not pick this fight — the government did. Critics of Apple’s approach believe that the company could have quietly complied with the government’s request to help break into the iPhone and then taken a public stand in a more favorable case. But Apple has said that once a tool exists for extracting data from the phone, that tool cannot be made to disappear.
Yet whatever doubts Apple’s allies voiced privately, they were in the end insufficient to keep a large number of big companies from signing on to the cause.
Dropbox’s general counsel, Ramsey Homsany, said in a statement, “We stand against the use of broad authorities to undermine the security of a company’s products.”
Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, said in a statement, “We are humbled by the outpouring of support we’ve received from our customers, our colleagues in business, nonprofit organizations, the security community and many others.” He added, “The groups filing briefs with the court understand, as more and more people have come to realize, that this case is not about one phone — it is about the future and how we protect our safety and our privacy.”
On Tuesday, Apple filed its formal objection to the government order to open up the iPhone, citing the reasons set forth in a previously filed motion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/t...fense-but-not-without-some-hand-wringing.html
[h=1]Apple Gets Tech Industry Backing in iPhone Dispute, Despite Misgivings[/h]By NICK WINGFIELD and MIKE ISAAC
It is a remarkable moment for the technology industry, with many different companies and organizations rallying around a single company — Apple — in a major legal case against the United States government over privacy and security.
Those misgivings ultimately did not win the day. About 40 companies and organizations are expected to file court briefs on Thursday backing Apple as it fights a judge’s order to help law enforcement break into an iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack last year.
Continue reading the main story
Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and Yahoo are among the tech companies expected to sign on to briefs in the case, according to people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. More than 40 individuals, including prominent security experts and academics, are also planning to sign briefs, which will focus on themes like free speech, the importance of encryption and concerns about government overreach.
Photo
Mark Zuckerberg, chief of Facebook, center, at an awards presentation in Berlin last month. Facebook is expected to sign briefs supporting Apple in its case against the F.B.I. Credit Pool photo by Frank Zauritz The show of support — including briefs filed on Wednesday by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Access Now — is unusual in its breadth, showing that many in Silicon Valley believe that it could have profound implications on the trustworthiness of their products.
“Given the years of companies’ reluctance to be at the barricades around intelligence discussions, this is significant,” said Jules Polonetsky, chief executive of the Future of Privacy Forum, an industry-financed think tank in Washington.
Still, several executives at tech companies supporting Apple said they were worried that Apple had picked a fight that could end up backfiring on the rest of the industry. In the days since a magistrate judge in California ordered Apple to bypass security measures on the iPhone, lawyers in some of the companies debated these issues with one another and peers at other firms.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
All of the executives asked to remain anonymous because their deliberations were private, but their views are shared among others in Silicon Valley.
Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist with the firm Khosla Ventures, said he was a strong believer in privacy and encryption — “all the normal Silicon Valley views,” he said — but worried that Apple could lose the case, setting a legal precedent that could force other companies to compromise the security of their products for law enforcement.
“In my view, this is the wrong case to fight,” Mr. Rabois said. “There are plenty of other cases with a lot less sympathetic case for the government.”
Photo
Sundar Pichai, chief of Google, which is among the tech companies expected to support Apple in its privacy battle against the federal government. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For Mr. Rabois and others, the circumstances working against Apple include the iPhone’s connection to a terrorist attack that left 14 people dead, rather than to a less highly charged crime. Furthermore, the iPhone was owned by the employer of the gunman, Syed Rizwan Farook, which consented to a search of the device.
Apple’s defenders said the company did not pick this fight — the government did. Critics of Apple’s approach believe that the company could have quietly complied with the government’s request to help break into the iPhone and then taken a public stand in a more favorable case. But Apple has said that once a tool exists for extracting data from the phone, that tool cannot be made to disappear.
Yet whatever doubts Apple’s allies voiced privately, they were in the end insufficient to keep a large number of big companies from signing on to the cause.
Dropbox’s general counsel, Ramsey Homsany, said in a statement, “We stand against the use of broad authorities to undermine the security of a company’s products.”
Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, said in a statement, “We are humbled by the outpouring of support we’ve received from our customers, our colleagues in business, nonprofit organizations, the security community and many others.” He added, “The groups filing briefs with the court understand, as more and more people have come to realize, that this case is not about one phone — it is about the future and how we protect our safety and our privacy.”
On Tuesday, Apple filed its formal objection to the government order to open up the iPhone, citing the reasons set forth in a previously filed motion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/t...fense-but-not-without-some-hand-wringing.html
