Let the FBI in through the backdoor and soon they’ll be peeking through the windows and tapping into the microphones.
That was the argument Apple head of online services Eddy Cue put forth on Univision on Wednesday, as he laid into the FBI for pushing the company to help uncover encrypted information on the San Bernardino shooter’s phone.
Cue says if the FBI is successful in this case, there’s no telling what it might try to do next:
“Some day they will want to turn on a camera or the microphone,” Cue said. “That should not happen in this country.”
Cue argued that there’s no way to make phones more accessible for the FBI without compromising security.
“What they want is a key to the backdoor,” Cue said. “Since we don’t have the key, you want us to change the lock.”
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He says if the FBI forced the company to change the locks, anyone could pick them, including terrorists and criminals.
Cue’s rant is the latest in a string of Apple executives lining up against the FBI. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told Conan O’Brien earlier this week that the FBI picked a lame case and it’s “worthless” to expect something’s on the phone. And on Sunday Apple’s chief software engineer, Craig Federighi, wrote that creating a backdoor would give hackers a massive advantage.
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Meanwhile, the American public is stuck in a sharp divide on whether to side with Apple or the FBI. Oral arguments in the case are set for March 22.
