Apple files motion to vacate FBI's request to unlock San Bernardino shooter's iPhone
Apple has filed a motion to back out of a court order to hack into the iPhone owned by the San Bernardino shooter.
"This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe," the motion reads.
(You can read the entire filing at the bottom of this story.)
In a call with the press Thursday, an Apple executive called the version of iOS the FBI needs to access the phone "GovtOS". Apple argues that law enforcement agencies would be able to use GovtOS to gain access to "hundreds" of iPhones it has from suspected criminals. For example, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has said his office has 175 iPhones it wants Apple to help it unlock.
Apple says it wants to argue against the court order based on the First and Fifth Amendments.
Apple is arguing that its First Amendment right to free speech is at stake. Apple wrote the code that encrypts the iPhone's software, which represents its corporate values for customer privacy. Forcing Apple to do the opposite would be a violation of its right to free speech and expression, the company's executives said.
Apple's Fifth Amendment argument is that the FBI's request denies its right to liberty and property by "undermining the security mechanisms of its own products."
Apple also says this is the first time the government has asked a company to intentionally weaken security systems, and that doing so would create a dangerous precedent moving forward.
Here's Apple's fact sheet for the motion written in plain language: