Ethic Paper. Extend
FBI vs. Apple
In December 2015, a shooting incident happened in San Bernardino, California that left 14 people killed. Two ISIS terrorists were taken down, and their iPhone were attained as potential evidence that might lead to a broader terrorist’s attack by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As the investigation continued after the attack, the FBI attempted to unlock the iPhones in order to access the data inside it, but was unable to trespass because of its strong encryption software. The US government later approached Apple Inc. for assistance to bypass the security of the iPhone but the request was denied by Apple. Soon after, the US Federal Court acquired a court order forcing Apple to assist the FBI cracking the iPhone’s security. Going against many US national security bureaus, Apple prioritized their duty of protecting user privacy, which then publicly opens an intense debate over the safety of national security and the privacy of technology user.
The stakeholders in this case would include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US government, the shooters, general iPhone’s user, Apple, and other smartphone user. The three central stakeholders we will look further into are the FBI, Apple, and the US government officials.
The technical problem in this case is the FBI wanted to force Apple to build a backdoor to the iPhone could leave many vulnerabilities to the current iOS software. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, stated that it is an act that not only against consumer’s will, but also such a master key can open a virtual gate to potential hackers for hacking into any iPhone in the future. The act of FBI requesting for assistance from Apple is the need to solve an ongoing terrorist group’s attack that can put national security at risk. This lead to the ethical problem that Apple does not want government agencies to obtain the master key to its iPhone because it will violate user policies, which can hurt Apple’s brand badly. The only way to protect its user’s privacy is to not provide a back door to penetrate its own operating system. However, putting myself in the government agencies’ perspective, it is unethical and unpatriotic for Apple to refuse to comply with the court order to help tracing down terrorists.
In order to solve this ethical problem, we will first consider the case from the view of the FBI. The FBI’s priority duty is to protect the country from terrorists, detecting any potential terrorist’s attacks that might cause loss of many lives. The FBI’s request to penetrate the data seems to be a main key to solve the case. Using rule utilitarianism, the FBI can argue how important it is to have access to the phone because the data inside can lead to the greatest good for the greatest number of lives. There are many terrorists out there inside the United State nation and the FBI needs to do everything in their power to keep them from innocent people. If every phone companies would deny assisting the government with all their available resources, the country would soon turn into chaos before the government knows it. Every extremist in the country should be captured and revealed personal information to government agencies for further investigation. There should be guidelines and rules set between terrorists and innocent citizens in terms of collecting personal data. Meaning as if someone is committing a crime, everything related to that person should be provided to government agencies as evidence to help to investigate the act of crime.
Next, we will look at the case from the view of Apple. Apple declared that being forced by the US government to write new codes is simply violating their First Amendment, which have ruled by the Court that writing code is a form of free speech (The New York Times, 2016). Apple argued that backdoors create more problems than they solve. By exploiting vulnerabilities of an operating system, it could leave tracks for hackers and foreign intelligence agencies to conduct mass surveillance and steal massive personal data from technology user. Apple is responsible for building a safe and secure product for user to keep their confidential information onto. Therefore, forcing them to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy. Furthermore, as if the FBI has received the assistance from Apple as they requested, they will ask for such favors again for many other smartphones, or any companies that offers strong security. Apple could also use Rawls’ theory of equality to solve this ethical problem. Every user has a right to protect their personal data. Company like Apple has a responsibility to protect all users’ data, no matter they are breaking the laws or happening to go against the government.
The last view we will look at is from the US government officials. From this point of view, it is easy enough to say that the government’s wish for the FBI to successfully access to the phone could help prevent terrorist’s attacks against its homelands. Furthermore, if the US officials successfully obtained the key to the iPhone, it would also create an easy access to other cases that is ongoing, as well as future investigations.