A reputed company involved in making devices people use to communicate or get on to the Internet might offer the most nuanced arguments in favour of upholding the absolute privacy of users. Powerful as the libertarian arguments are in not opening any avenue for the government to spy on people or pry into their communications, they break down only at one hurdle — terrorism.
If Apple has been asked by the justice department to help breach an iPhone used by a terrorist involved in the San Bernardino killings, it is not so much an indictment of the Establishment’s technical inability to beat encryption as the need to help a public cause and expose secrets hidden in a terrorist’s phone.
The entire Silicon Valley has lined up behind Apple in this battle against an FBI order that was upheld by a US federal judge. This big fight between security and privacy was inevitable. No answer is clear-cut in this debate. The overreach of governments in snooping on people has turned the opinion in the free world against the Establishment.
Even so, it could be argued that in such a specific case of encryption beating thorough investigation of the methodology and contacts of a terror merchant, big tech companies of the free world must roll up their sleeves and come and help fight terrorism. No one in his right mind would argue that investigators should be given unfettered access to everyone’s private data. Security and investigative agencies must understand that only in grave cases can it even ask for such help. As a rule, privacy trumps everything. Well, almost everything.
