US Congress asks for new rules on privacy & security
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E-mail CNTV, March 2, 2016
The fight between Apple and the FBI has moved from the courtroom to the Congress. The dispute is over the FBI's demand to the tech giant to create an encryption-breaking software on an iPhone used by a gunman who killed 14 people in an attack in California last December.
FBI Director James Comey appeared before the U.S. Congress wielding a very old law, dating back to 1789. He wants to use the "All Writs Law" to compel Apple to force open the doors not of a building, but of an iPhone 5C, used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two San Bernardino terrorists killed in a shootout.
Encryption provides iPhone users with a high level of privacy and security for personal and corporate information. But it also makes it potentially more difficult for the authorities to investigate and prevent terrorist attacks and crimes.
Apple's General Counsel Bruce Sewell argues the FBI's demand on the San Bernadino case would undermine his every iPhone user's privacy and security.
The FBI Director has admitted that if they win the case in court, it will provide a legal precedent for law enforcement to force Apple to crack open its encryption system regularly.
But both Apple and the FBI are in agreement that Congress should now consider creating a more modern law in order to balance out the needs for privacy and security in a world where smartphones carry within them so much of our lives.
