A very public battle has emerged between the most powerful government in the world and the most valuable company in the world. In this Goliath vs. Goliath battle, we should be siding with the side most at risk; ourselves.
The battle is a result of a court order demanding that Apple create a hack to disable the security of an iPhone owned by one of the shooters involved in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December. The FBI wants to review the data to search for more information on the terrorists.
Apple is refusing to comply with the court order, defending its position by stating that no such software hack exists and by being forced by the government to create one, it may put millions of phones at risk of being hacked.
The most powerful argument on Apple’s side is that police agencies across the country are currently holding hundreds of phones from other non-terrorism cases that could be unlocked with such a hack key. Apple argues that once a hack into its software is created, it cannot be uninvented. They argue it would pose a threat to all of its phones, now and in the future.
Most iPhone users spent the money on the devices because of its superior design and functionality, justifying the higher cost compared to Android phones. One of those functions is the bulletproof encryption software, making the phone impossible to hack, as the FBI has now proven. (By the way, BEST MARKETING FOR APPLE EVER!)
What the FBI is asking is for Apple to disable the function that erases the phone’s data after 10 unsuccessful password attempts. Without that function, the FBI could bombard the phone with passwords until they stumble on the right one. Depending on the number of digits and whether alphanumeric or symbols were used, it could take as little as a few hours or up to months to crack.
But Apple is not an arm of the government, nor should it be forced to create new backdoors to allow investigators into our data. If the public loses confidence in the privacy of our own technology devices, then we would be surrendering our freedoms to unwarranted searches and investigations without notice or consent.
In minority communities, privacy has been an ongoing battle with law enforcement. Latinos have historically been disproportionally targeted by police and receive harsher sentencing than whites. Many cases of over zealous prosecutions of Latinos have been reversed.
So allowing easier government access to mobile devices without warrants or notice could have a disproportionate effect on Latinos. A community already susceptible to abuses by police could experience an increase in cases of evidence trolling; much like driving while brown targets Latinos on the assumption they’re up to something illegal with no probable cause. It doesn’t matter if one is actually up to something, but the ability for police to check without probable cause is an intrusion.
Benjamin Franklin once famously wrote “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Although the context was much different then, the meaning may still apply here. If we allow the argument for law enforcement’s right to access personal phone data in the investigation of a crime or terrorism to prevail, we could inadvertently open the door to unfettered access by government agencies or even worse.
We could open Pandora’s box with one hack.
Even if one trusts that the government would not abuse the new phone hack, it could open the door for malicious hackers. Illegal hacks have stolen credit card information from large retailers, and even broke into government computers and copied more than 21 million personnel files of federal employees. Foreign hackers, mostly backed by the Chinese government, have crashed secure systems and broken into the computers of more than 500 businesses and institutions.
Why would we not think hackers would misuse such a backdoor in the over 850 million iPhones that exist today?
Apple has been successful, even when most thought it would fail in the 1990’s, primarily because of its innovative design and technology, its usability and simplicity, but also its hardened data protection. It is now the most valuable company, with a market value of over $530 billion.
For the government to apply pressure on Apple or any other company to break its own encryption systems could open the floodgates for more harm to many more people. This may be one time when personal privacy now and in the future will triumph over government access. Latinos should be both weary of the arguments and vigilant of the outcome.
And, for sure, change your password.