FBI's Scorched Earth Approach To Apple Means That Tech Companies Now Have Even Less Incentive To Help Feds

On Friday, we debunked a key FBI talking point, which the press has been parroting, that Apple had helped the FBI in 70 previous cases, and only changed its mind now for "marketing" or "business model" reasons. As we explained, that's not even remotely true. In the past, Apple helped out because it had access to the content, and so it got it and turned it over following a lawful search warrant/court order. In this case, the situation is entirely different. Apple does not have access to the content that the FBI wants, and is now being forced to create a backdoor -- build an entirely revamped operating system -- that undermines some key security features found on iPhones today. That's quite different. But here's something we didn't point out -- but which was highlighted by Chris Soghoian. The FBI's scorched earth policy here in pushing that talking point is really going to backfire in a big bad way. The lesson the entire tech industry is going to get from this is: if you ever help the FBI and if you ever push back later, they'll use your earlier cooperation against you.

Tech companies: If you provide any voluntarily assistance to the gov, they will use that help against you if you try to fight a demand later

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) February 19, 2016

Indeed, the FBI is going on and on in the press and in court filings pointing to those "previous" times, as if it's proof that Apple has suddenly "changed its mind" for "marketing" reasons. From the motion to compel on Friday: Given all that, why would any tech company voluntarily help the FBI going forward? It's only going to be used against them if they ever protest an overbroad request. We keep hearing government folks say that Silicon Valley has to stop treating the government as an adversary -- and I think the only proper response to that is: you first. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story