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The Politics of Privacy in a Mobile Age
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/ Canadian Government Executive
// May 2016
Strategy
Apple & Encryption:
Jeff
Roy
I
n recent months, the protracted dispute between Apple and the FBI sur-
rounding the encryption of iPhone data divided Americans and strained rela-
tions between Silicon Valley and US federal authorities. The fundamental
issue is the tenuous relationship between privacy and security, and whether
infallible encryption on our mobile devices is a virtue or a threat.
Apple’s central claim has been two-fold: first, that it does not seek to monetize
its customer data (unlike social media companies and Google); and secondly; that
its own default encryption on its flagship iPhone makes it impossible for even the
company itself to penetrate. The galvanizing case has been the 2015 terrorist attack
in San Bernardino, California, and efforts by US law enforcement authorities to
“crack the phone” of one of the perpetrators.
The US Government sought a court order to compel the technology company