Apple gets backing in FBI iPhone case from privacy groups, tech titans - CNET

Public opinion may be divided on whether Apple should modify its mobile software to help the FBI gain access to a terrorist's iPhone, but several leading tech companies and privacy groups are definitely siding with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the first in what's expected to be a series of anamicus briefs in federal court supporting Apple's decision to challenge a Feb. 16 court order that demands the company write a new version of its iOS software. Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook, and privacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have said they're also going to submit amicus briefs on Apple's behalf by the March 3 deadline.

"While the govement can in some circumstances require private parties to support law-enforcement investigations...law enforcement may not commandeer iocent third parties into becoming its undercover agents, its spies, or its hackers," the ACLU wrote in its brief on Wednesday. "If the govement prevails, then this case will be the first of many requiring companies to degrade the security and to undermine the trust in their products so essential to privacy in the digital age."

Apple says creating a new, custom version of iOS software is unprecedented and unconstitutional. Cook, in a public letter and otherstatements, says what the FBI is asking for is a "back door" or "master key" to every iPhone. Once it's created, he adds, it would compromise the privacy and security of the billion iPhones and iPads powered by iOS. The FBI says it just wants to find out all it can about one of the terrorists who led a December massacre in San Beardino, Califoia.

A court hearing to determine whether Apple should be forced to comply with the FBI's request is set for March 22 in federal court in Riverside, Califoia. This week, Apple's top lawyer, Bruce Sewell, spoke on a panel opposite FBI Director Jame Comey debating personal security versus national security in a five-hour session on Capitol Hill.