The ongoing saga regarding Apple’s refusal to build a backdoor for the FBI into the iPhone of the San Bernadino shooter continues thanks to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, who’s come out in support of the FBI.
His reasoning is they’re not actually asking for a back door and it’s a specific case; asking for specific information.
“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” Gates told the Financial Times in an interview [link behind paywall].
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he will fight the FBI’s request for Apple to provide access to the device believing the proposal is ‘dangerous’ and could give hackers access to user devices too. Meanwhile, FBI director James Comey has insisted the move wouldn’t create a precedent.
Gates’ view supports this saying that this is just one device, and the procedure is not dissimilar to when a telephone company is requested to give up phone records.
The view of Gates and Comey are all well and good, but their insistence has now been diminished somewhat following a report in the Wall Street Journal that says the Department of Justice has filed for Apple to extract information from iPhones in another twelves cases.
Apple, meanwhile, continues to fight for its corner.