FBI Case Study: Apple Vs. The FBI

This Apple vs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case study focuses on the one of many instances when the FBI has requested Apple to allow access into one of their devices. This case looks into a terrorist in California and gaining access into one of the terrorist’s iPhone. Apple is constantly looking to improve the security of their products because their customers value privacy. According to Muzamil Riffat, privacy is a subjective phenomenon. The definition of privacy is due to change based on several factors and geological location. Privacy is something that most people in the world value. Having passcodes on Apple products allow the users to feel safe. They know other people or the government cannot retain information on their phone.
This wanted privacy only becomes an issue when other people are harmed or put in harmful situation, the people that do have something to hide can keep almost anything hidden because of this. This issue makes it very difficult now a days to get access to information that could help a court case or find crucial evidence. Apple is not in charge whether someone puts a passcode on their phone, they are just providing them with the option to do so. The FBI did the only thing they could do, hack into Farook’s phone to see what was on it. Most people suspect that the government is already watching them through their phone and laptop cameras, this suspicion is leading to a lack of trust with the security and privacy of people’s lives. Apple wants to be able to help the government, but will not put the information of their customers out in the public even though the circumstances were difficult. They could not give out Farook’s information without losing the trust of their users. The evidence on his phone was extremely important to the FBI to get a closer look into what information he had on the attack and maybe evidence for future
Should Apple give up the privacy of all their users to help the government? People will always want their privacy and Apple continues to increase the security on their products. A solution to this problem could be to allow the FBI to hack into phones with a warrant. A warrant will allow the government to gain access to evidence on iPhones without going through hackers. For this case the FBI paid $1 million dollars for professional hacker to help. In situations like this, it will be very useful to have someone on their team that can gain access into any phone when there is a threat or act of terrorism. There is no specific way to handle an ethical dilemma, Apple has to figure out what is most important to their company and what their stakeholders want. With their decision, it was important for them to let their customers know that their privacy is extremely important to them and they will not give the government an easy system to hack into. Another option would be for the FBI law enforcement to improve their technical literacy. If they improve their technical literacy, they will be able to gain unauthorized access into any cell phone or device with a passcode on it. Although with each specific and unique case, one solution will not work for all of them. Law enforcers will have to be able to find ways to adapt to each case to get into any device for any reason. They want to be able to obtain all the