Tech giants issue messages in support of CEO Tim Cook challenging court order to help break into San Bernardino killer’s phone

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Tech giants Google and WhatsApp and whistleblower Edward Snowden are backing Apple’s stance over the encryption technology used in its iPhone smartphones.

Apple has been ordered by a US federal magistrate to help the FBI unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, but in a letter published on the company’s website, chief executive Tim Cook said his company would fight the move.

Now Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has given the stance his backing. “Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy,” wrote Google’s boss, as part of a short series of tweets addressing the issue.

“We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism. We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders. But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent.”

Pichai added that he was “looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue”.

sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) 1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy

Jan Koum, chief executive of Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, has also expressed his support for Apple’s stance, in a post on the social network.

“I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple’s efforts to protect user data, and couldn’t agree more with everything said in their customer letter today,” wrote Koum.

“We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake.”

Their views reflect those of Tim Cook in his letter to customers, which accused the FBI of requesting that Apple “build a backdoor to the iPhone” for use by government and law enforcement agencies.

“Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation,” wrote Cook.

He claimed that “in the wrong hands” this software could be used to unlock “any iPhone in someone’s physical possession”, and warned that Apple would not be able to guarantee that the software would only be used by the FBI in this case.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has also backed Apple, tweeting that the company’s stance was defending the rights of its customers.

Edward Snowden (@Snowden) The @FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on #Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around. https://t.co/vdjB6CuB7k

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has yet to issue his own statement, but he retweeted a link to a statement by activist group Reform Government Surveillance – which includes Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn among its members.

“Technology companies should not be required to build in backdoors to the technologies that keep their users’ information secure,” said the statement.

“RGS companies remain committed to providing law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers’ information.”

Besides messages of support, Apple has also been publicly criticised for its stance on encryption in this case, however.

Republican candidate Donald Trump attacked Apple in a television interview. “To think that Apple won’t allow us to get into her cellphone? Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it,” said Trump.

“Apple – this is one case and this is a case that certainly we should be able to get into the phone. And we should find out what happened, why it happened, and maybe there’s other people involved. And we have to do that.”

US senator Tom Cotton went further. “The problem of end-to-end encryption isn’t just a terrorism issue. It is also a drug-trafficking, kidnapping and child pornography issue that impacts every state of the Union,” he said in a statement.

“It’s unfortunate that the great company Apple is becoming the company of choice for terrorists, drug dealers and sexual predators of all sorts.”

In the UK, the uncle of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was murdered in London in 2013 by two Islamic extremists, said Apple was “protecting a murderer’s privacy at the cost of public safety”.

“Valuable evidence is on that smartphone and Apple is denying the FBI access to that information,” Ray McClure told the BBC.

“If a court issued a warrant in the UK or United States to search somebody’s house, you wouldn’t stop them, you would allow them in - why should a smartphone be any different?” said McClure.

“If Mr Cook has no sympathy for terrorists, why is he stopping the FBI accessing those phone records?”

• Inside the FBI’s encryption battle with Apple

