Apple’s CEO Tim Cook met with White House officials, intelligence agency personnel and some of his Silicon Valley contemporaries to discuss technology’s influence on fighting terrorism, once again reiterating his (and Apple’s) strong pro-privacy stance.
Tim Cook meets with White House officials to reiterate Apple’s pro-privacy stance: https://t.co/cWlXxAQQ1N
— TapSmart (@TapSmart) January 13, 2016
FBI Chief James Comey has been outspoken in his belief that the government and intelligence agencies should be granted the ability to access the data on any smartphone through a digital “backdoor” that only they can open. Cook, and representatives from other tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft, argue that building a backdoor for the good guys is just not possible. Encryption is an all-or-nothing business, as any weakness could be targeted by hackers or cyber terrorists.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch wants to find a balance that favors national security, while Cook is adamant that the public should not have to sacrifice its privacy in any way to keep the US safe. Apple has a strong, transparent views on privacy and encryption, doing its best to protect personal data from getting into the wrong hands.
Read more: what does Apple do with our personal data?
President Obama has previously been against the use of backdoors, previously backing down after the FBI-backed government proposal to use them. However, since the recent terrorist attacks its unclear if that position has changed. The subject of encryption was notable by its absence in Obama’s final State of the Union address, and it looks like the privacy battle will continue on for some time.