The ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI has taken a rather interesting turn, with Apple apparently looking to get Congress involved in the dispute. Apple has been provided with a legal order from the federal circuit in the United States that tells the company to work with law enforcement agencies in an effort to unlock and leverage data from an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has thus far contested the order due to the nature of the FBI demands, which essentially want a new version of iOS to be created to provide a backdoor into the mobile platform. Now, it is being reported that Apple would like the Congress to get involved in the matter and settle the dispute.
One of the leading lawyers on Apple’s payroll – Theodore Boutrous Jr. – has echoed a number of comments and sentiments made by Apple CEO Tim Cook as part of an open letter penned to employees of the company. Within it, Tim Cook argued that the government should withdraw the demands that it’s placing upon Apple due to the belief that they are essentially invalid under the terms of the All Writs Act of 1789.
Boutrous Jr. carries on that letter as part of an interview, by suggesting that the law does not provide government agencies with the legal authority to demand that companies create a backdoor to secure devices:
The government is really seeking to push the courts to do what they haven’t been able to persuade Congress to do. That’s to give it more broad, sweeping authority to help the Department of Justice hack into devices, to have a backdoor into devices, and the law simply does not provide that authority.
The case has become a growing cause for concern due to recent revelations which suggested the government was looking to gain access to 12 more devices than just the single iPhone 5c involved in the case of the San Bernardino shooting in California. Today’s report suggests that Apple will attempt to leverage the attention of Congress in an effort to argue against all of these cases in one go.
(Source: OCRegister)
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