A mother whose son was killed in the San Bernardino, California, shooting last year is siding with Apple in its battle to protect consumer’s privacy rights by refusing the FBI’s demands for new software to break into the iPhone of her son’s killer.

Carole Adams, the mother of Robert Adams — a 40-year-old environmental health specialist who was shot dead by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife in December — told the New York Post Thursday that the constitutional right to privacy “is what makes America great to begin with.”

She stood by Apple’s decision to fight a federal court order to create software that would allow federal authorities to access the shooter’s password-blocked iPhone. The software would allow authorities to retrieve personal banking passwords, photos and other information.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has argued that such software could be used in the future and would create a dangerous precedent for cell phone evidence in court cases.

“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true,” Mr. Cook said. “Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices.”

Ms. Adams said such software could undermine the Constitution.

“This is what separates us from communism, isn’t it? The fact we have the right to privacy,” she told the New York Post. “I think Apple is definitely within their rights to protect the privacy of all Americans.

“This is what makes America great to begin with, that we abide by a Constitution that gives us the right of privacy, the right to bear arms, and the right to vote.”

Federal authorities want to hack into Farook’s phone to retrace the Islamic State sympathizer’s steps on Dec. 2 when he and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

California US Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym has ordered Apple to create a back door for the FBI to bypass an iPhone feature that destroys data after 10 consecutive unsuccessful unlock attempts.

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