Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been battling the United States Justice Department for quite a while regarding the security on its devices and the refusal to create a backdoor access for authorities to hack into smartphones involved in federal investigations.
On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department appealed a New York federal judge’s refusal to force the tech giant company to help investigators unlock the iPhone of a suspected Brooklyn drug dealer.
The New York magistrate judge James Orenstein however, had ruled in Apple’s favor just a few weeks ago when the FBI requested the tech company to unlock the iPhone 5S of a San Bernardino shooter.
In spite of this, it’s important for authorities to realize that the previous iPhone involved in the San Bernardino shootings ran on IOS 9, which differs from the one involved in New York’s Court which runs on iOS 7.
This earlier version of Apple’s operating system is more prone to hackers as the data is not protected by encryption technology in comparison to the iOS 9.
The Brooklyn suspect identified as Jun Feng has already pleaded guilty to the court of drug dealing and he has already waited for his day in court where the only matter will be to determine how long his sentence will be.
Given this, it would appear that hacking into the suspect’s iPhone wouldn’t implicate any changes to the court’s ruling. However, it could help the pertinent authorities get significant information that could lead to the arrest of another drug dealer in the Brooklyn area or find the supplement chains.
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Struggle for customer’s privacy
Now, the federal prosecutor is asking the District Court Judge Margo Brodie to overrule the decision regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s demand to get access to the iPhone involved in the investigation.
The magistrate from the big city declared that he won’t help the “virtually limitless expansion of the government’s legal authority to surreptitiously intrude on personal privacy,” considering the recent push for federal agencies on tech company Apple to unlock its devices.
Orenstein is stating a significant argument against the government’s reach when it comes to personal privacy and boundaries of the law. It’s difficult to conceive the idea that by allowing the FBI or any federal agency to get access to a backdoor for databases, the people’s private information wouldn’t be at stake.
Nevertheless, the United States government has demanded District Court Judge Margo Brodie review the ruling filed by Magistrate Judge James Orenstein. Furthermore, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has previously stated that a ‘dangerous precedent’ regarding personal privacy would be set if the company gives in to the governments demand.
“Apple has the technological capability to bypass the passcode feature and access the contents of the phone that were unencrypted,” reads the order filed by the U.S. government in order for the tech company giant to create a backdoor access to its devices.
Source: Mac Rumors