Tim Cook's internal memo to all Apple employees on its fight against the FBI
In an internal company memo obtained by BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski, Cook says that the Bureau should withdraw its demand to have the Cupertino company develop a tool to help it break into an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.
A court ordered Apple to comply last week, but the Cupertino company is challenging the order. The case has been highly contentious: the FBI argues it needs to access the phone's encrypted data in order to find more about the killers (and potentially avoid future attacks), while Apple argues complying creates an dangerous precedent.
Apple is calling for the government to launch a commission of experts to examine the effects of encryption technology on law enforcement.
"We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy and personal freedoms," Cook writes to employees. "Apple would gladly participate in such an effort."
Apple also denies that its objections are based on its marketing strategy, as some have suggested. "Nothing could be further from the truth," says the company in a public Q&A page published Monday.
This story is developing...