Apple chief defends rejection of FBI court order
Tim Cook vowed to protect iPhone owners and uphold the tech group’s integrity by declining to help the bureau hack a phone used in a recent terrorist attack. Social media users are divided.
Apple has made clear its stance on customer security.
The tech company says it will not comply with a federal court order to assist the FBI in unlocking data from an iPhone used by one of the attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last December.
In a letter called, “A Message to Our Customers,” Apple CEO Tim Cook says obeying the mandate would cause a threat to customers’ data security and “undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”
On Tuesday, Apple’s crisis and PR teams made quick work of announcing the brand’s refusal. The statement was issued only hours after Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ordered the company to build special software that would act as a passkey capable of unlocking the iPhone.
The New York Times reports that Apple is ready to face off against government authorities:
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