By: Alvin Wilson Staff Writer
Apple is refusing to give the FBI access to encrypted data on one of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.
The FBI has requested that Apple build the technology necessary to decrypt the data that they currently can’t access.
Bob Broeg, professor of computer science at Western, described encrypted data as being a sentence with the letters jumbled up. To find the correct order, you have to have a key.
“With most encryptions today, you have two keys,” he said. “One is a public key that you can use to encrypt something, but you can’t decrypt it without a private key. So, anybody can send an encrypted message, but only the person with the second key can decrypt it.”
Apple encrypts some of the data that is stored on their phones to protect the privacy of the user, but the government still has access to metadata, according to Dana Schowalter, assistant professor of communication studies.
“The government can find metadata whether or not it’s encrypted,” she said. “They can find—on our phone records and things like that, they can determine when we text somebody.
“But if you iMessage somebody else, for example, that’s encrypted. It doesn’t show up on your bill, and therefore can’t be subpoenaed from the phone company because they don’t necessarily keep records of that.”
The FBI wants access to encrypted information on one of the San Bernardino shooters’ phone, but Apple is afraid of future privacy violations that could occur if the government receives access to this technology.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, sent an open letter to Apple customers.
“While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products,” Cook said in the letter. “And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”
Schowalter agrees about the importance of our freedom of privacy.
“When that information is encrypted, I think people value that because it means the information is protected,” she said. “In an era where almost nothing is protected, having at least some content that could be protected is very valuable.”
Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has publicly supported Apple’s decision, but, according to a Pew Research poll, 51 percent of Americans think they should submit to the demands of the FBI.
The FBI is arguing that Apple’s encryption policy is interfering with their ability to protect the public.
Schowalter is skeptical of this argument.
“If you take a look at what they’re asking Apple to do, I think there is some security case for being able to access that information,” she said.
“But at the same time,” she added, “asking for this backdoor seems to be a huge overreach, and I don’t think the government has shown that they can exercise restraint in what they’re collecting and how they’re using that information.”
Broeg thinks that Apple should help the FBI, but not by providing a backdoor to the government.
“I think if there was an error that the FBI needed to figure out, Apple could decrypt it for them,” he said. “But it should probably stay somewhat encrypted.”
Schowalter said the long term effects might be similar to what we saw with the Patriot Act.
“I don’t think people really notice when they’re being spied on now, so I think it just adds a layer of distrust,” she said. “I think we, in the fearmongering that happened after 9/11, consented to all sorts of breaches of our basic human rights to privacy. I think it sets a very dangerous precedent.”
Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal
