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Bitter Clinger wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:

ScottDLS wrote:This is the Clinton Era "Clipper Chip" all over again.

Someone just sent me a link to the details of that story: https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231146

The intent was, of course, that if and when the time came that the government had a "lawful" reason to intercept data it could use said escrowed key to get into whatever they wanted to.

But there were several problems. First was arguably the most-serious, which was that the chip's design was done under NSA auspice and considered a state secret. That's right -- it was actually classified at the SECRET level, which of course allegedly forbade anyone not holding said clearance from having any knowledge of how it worked. That was a fanciful load of crap then and it remains one now; Hillary has proved this hundreds of times with her little email server that had resident on it, unencrypted, SECRET (and above) emails.

Never mind that our government can't even manage to keep OPM records secure; there are a lot of people (like virtually everyone) that holds a clearance that has had their personal data, including fingerprints, stolen by the Chinese and, probably the Russians. Like an encryption key that is hard-wired into a chip once a fingerprint is stolen you can't change it and as such the compromise is permanent.

Then, a bit later, it was discovered that the NSA design was incompetent besides and the chip could be tricked. At that point the entire scheme collapsed around the government's ears.

Ironically, between this story and the fact that the San Berdoo terrorist's phone was in FBI possession when the employer reset the password, thereby essentially locking up the data on it, the ONE thing we have going for us in protecting our privacy is the massive incompetence and inefficiency of Leviathan. Such fecklessness can never be entrusted with protecting the private data of private citizens from intrusion by rogue gov't, or hackers. Heck, they can't even protect their employees' data. I'll be hanged if I want to trust them with protecting mine.

Yeah, yeah. All this rage against the government. Well I too believe that the government has gotten way too large and there are far too many unelected bureaucrats who deserve to be shown the door and find honest employment. And no, I do not trust Obama, not after all he has done to destroy the US and its fundamental values that we used to know and love and respect.

But hey, wait just a dang minute all of you! Apple is not on your side! You lust after your Apple products, but do you think Apple cares about your security? Do you think Google and Facebook have your privacy interests at heart? Apple can provide this hack, deliver the data and do so without jeopardizing privacy - buts its far more profitable to play it up in the news as if they had your best interests at heart. And stop quoting Ben Franklin, this is about privacy, not liberty.

Fact is, Apple is protecting Apple and Apple alone, and their profit motive. Sure, they are entitled to make as much profit as they can, but ethically! The problem is that in the blind pursuit of profit at the expense of morality they are possibly endangering more innocent lives. Where is your compassion for the families of the 14 murdered? Where is your outrage over this atrocity and the demand that we do whatever necessary to gain any and all intel that could prevent the next attack? Feeling smug because we chose to live in Texas where a brave Garland traffic officer took out two wanna be jihadi's with his service Glock? Well what if the next attack, for example, something akin to the Boston bombing could be stopped by the data on the phone? Pure speculation? Sure. But your speculation that the government is preparing some nefarious scheme to tap into your private conversations - as if they were all that interesting to begin with, NOT - is just as far beyond the pale.

The families of the innocents slaughtered want this data to be turned over to the FBI in the outside chance that it might save someone else's life. NOT an unreasonable request. So let's have some balance here and a little less slavish Apple worship and wholesale FBI bashing. We are supposed to be law abiding citizens of good standing! Its not all about you.

Bryanmc wrote:

justa2e2 wrote:I don't see what the issue is? Apple is looking out for the privacy of its customers. If they create a backdoor into the OS then they open a can of worms that can't be put back in.

The phone is owned by the shooter's employer (San Bernadino County I think). I'm sure they want the FBI to be able to access the data also. I would think Apple could crack this phone without affecting any of the others, then retain the code that did it.