If you have not heard about the Apple vs. the US Government fight, you have not been paying attention lately. However, we will enlighten you anyway. Apple is known for their cutting edge technology, and more recently, statements about the privacy of their users. Given the last position, many Apple fans waited to see how the drama would play out when the tech company was faced with a real challenge of users’ privacy.
After the events in San Bernardino, the government and Apple were in a stand off. This was because one of the terrorists had an encrypted iPhone. Apple refused to write software to allow the phone to be compromised, and that led to a high profile case. Their argument was writing the software would compromise the security of their other products as well. The hearing for this case was scheduled for late March, and many thought it would go on as planned.
According to NPR, this standoff may be ending soon with a victory for Apple and privacy advocates. The US federal government has cancelled their hearing, because they may have found a different method of decrypting the iPhone without Apple’s help. Though the litigation has not ended completely, it has certainly been delayed for an unknown amount of time. That move is interesting to many in other tech fields as well.
The US government is not known to give up easily on anything, so this reversal may indicate they did not think they could win. That is a day that many of us didn’t think would ever come. Ever since Edward Snowden came forward, more people have become aware of their privacy. The fact that Apple challenged the government represents a shift in users’ attitudes towards a more privacy minded product.
Whether it is delayed indefinitely or cancelled entirely, this is a victory for anyone that cares about their privacy. Does this mean that more companies will create safeguards to protect their users’ information? We can only wait and see. If you are really concerned, you would be safer to use a product that was open source instead of testing the tech giants. For some people though, the iPhone’s encryption may be the only security they ever see. Kudos to Apple for sticking to their principles and not backing down to the federal government. If other companies would take a stand like this, the world could be a better place.