Apple, FBI battle a wedge issue for American voters, poll shows
The ongoing philosophical debate between Silicon Valley -- with Apple at the forefront -- and the federal government over encryption has split the American electorate in two distinct but equal camps, a new survey shows.
Some 47 percent of those polled are worried that the government may not go far enough to protect the country through surveillance, while 44 percent said they were concerned that the government would overstep its boundaries. The data was collected by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News from 1,200 registered voters between March 3 and March 6.
Republican voters favored the government's side 57 percent to 37 percent, while Democratic voters skewed in the opposite direction -- 50 percent worried that the government would go too far, while 40 percent worried that they would not go far enough.
When asked if Apple should cooperate with the FBI's request, 42 percent answered yes while 47 percent said no. The remaining 11 percent were undecided.
Apple has received nearly unanimous support from Silicon Valley, with more than two dozen American technology firms signing amicus briefs backing the iPhone maker. A number of civil liberties groups, including the ACLU and EFF, have also stepped in on Apple's side.
Some 47 percent of those polled are worried that the government may not go far enough to protect the country through surveillance, while 44 percent said they were concerned that the government would overstep its boundaries. The data was collected by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News from 1,200 registered voters between March 3 and March 6.
Republican voters favored the government's side 57 percent to 37 percent, while Democratic voters skewed in the opposite direction -- 50 percent worried that the government would go too far, while 40 percent worried that they would not go far enough.
When asked if Apple should cooperate with the FBI's request, 42 percent answered yes while 47 percent said no. The remaining 11 percent were undecided.
Apple has received nearly unanimous support from Silicon Valley, with more than two dozen American technology firms signing amicus briefs backing the iPhone maker. A number of civil liberties groups, including the ACLU and EFF, have also stepped in on Apple's side.
Comments
Stupid people/iHaters know no limits.
Public perception is extremely important in a battle like this; it's not 1791 anymore. If you want Congress to pass strict restrictions, you better make damn sure they know there will be electoral consequences for voting the wrong way.
However...
To equate Republicans and Democrats on this topic is rather disingenuous. There are obviously people from all political views who both agree and disagree with the two viewpoints in this situation. But from a statistical view, it's not balanced and actually is skewed the opposite direction as you insinuate. According to the NBC/WSJ poll released today, the following stats come out:
"Republicans favored the government’s position 57% to 37%, while Democrats sided with Apple 50% to 40%. Strongest support for Apple was among independent voters, who back Apple by a 2-to-1 ratio, at 58% to 28%." - 9to5Mac
This is exactly the type of issue where people from different political leanings can appreciate common ground.
Facts are stubborn things and when they don't support your message, you ignore them. Therefore, the media ignores the facts to sensationalize the issue and gain readers/viewers and the FBI ignores the facts because they screwed up.
Can Obama do something for the people in this instance? Hell yes! Will he? Probably not because he's trying to get Congress to allow him to appoint a replacement to the US Supreme Court so he's weighing his options. Does Washington DC need some slapping around, a ton of firing, and a whole lot of restructuring? Second hell yes! Will that happen? Not in my lifetime. Our government's actions didn't start yesterday or when Obama became President, it started falling apart a long time ago.
Not with that attitude.
Today's politicians are completely different. They live for the attention, entitlement and many times, corruption. They may start out thinking they want to make things better but soon find out that they have to play the game and eventually succumb to greed and personal benefit motivations. The salaries of politicians aren't very high compared to what they could earn in private business, hence the temptation to accept favors. There are few if any civil servants in congress. Parents have aspirations for their children, but they seldom encourage them to become politicians. Today's politicians are more despicable than ambulance chasing lawyers.
With one of the choices we have for president this election, a military coup d'état is not completely out of the question.
Aw man, the military revolting if Hillary steals the election would be spectacular.
One would think the questions posed during these polls were deliberately worded to further confuse the general populous and make them side with the feds...
Indeed... And how is it we've not heard a single PEEP out of any agency asking Google for assistance with cracking Android shitboxes? It's because they already have full access to that steaming pile of dung because it has so many vulnerabilities and ways of gaining access already. Yet people still buy that garbage, unbelievable...
James Madison.
Wars on ideology make zero sense unless you look at who stands to gain from the conflicts. Governments worldwide are using the same strategy that has existed for centuries.