Maria Ashot

Tim Cook, and anyone else attempting to chivalrously protect me -- with the best of intentions -- from intrusions upon my privacy: surely it is possible to work out a protocol whereby, upon an Apple Customer having ceased to exist, or in the event of an extremely grave criminal offence (such as mass murder, serial rape, kidnapping for ransom, hijacking or carjacking, arson, or a large-scale fraud or theft such as the one recently where teams of thieves fanned out to cash machines across the globe to receive huge sums of stolen money that began to eject upon the command of a remote hacker), encryption will cease to be impregnable upon presentation of a court order and with the appropriate warrants having been supplied by law enforcement agencies, with safeguards against abuses? As an adult of 58 years, I have lived through many events, including some very dramatic and dangerous ones, including attacks on my person or loved ones'. I am well aware, more so than most, in fact, of the need to zealously guard my personal safety, my family's, my friends'. But as a competent and experienced person of 58, I am also skilled in my own methods and security protocols. The argument that we are at the mercy of an intrusive, malevolent "nanny state" that insists on looking over our shoulder to know all our secret thoughts collapses entirely at the suggestion  that somehow it is a better outcome to be at the mercy of a hovering, patronising "nanny corporation," that will do everything for us (including assisting in experiencing and logging orgasms, apparently) -- including protecting us from the "evil FBI." The example of Russia and China, where people are regularly sent to prison camps to be abused and starved for the crime of wishing to start a political party, or quoting from some foreign blog (these are documented cases that have featured in the news in those Snowden-loving countries over the past few months), is utterly misguided and misplaced here. And if China is such an offender, why has the Apple corporation chosen to make it so rich, by moving so much production there, instead of keeping it here in the USA, where we respect human rights? To compare homophobic, xenophobic, aggressive, sexist and profoundly backward Russia -- where security services routinely sodomize detainees with champagne bottles, a fact you can read about at length from survivors in YouTube, and documented also by mainstream foreign media such as Reuters, BBC, CNN, AFP -- to the political reality in the USA today is an outrageous false analogy. Please, get serious. No, I am not happy to have the NSA snoop around in my life and DNA -- but neither am I thrilled to have the new Private "spook services" (Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, etc.) do essentially the same thing for the benefit of mystery customers who are not even security cleared law enforcement. I trust Apple with my data. I also choose which data you have access to. I am keenly aware of everything I write and say, and the timing of each utterance. So is every intelligent human being. Give other grown up people some credit, Tim Cook, and please don't imagine we are all so helpless and incapable of dealing with Big Government when it surrounds us. Come up with a fair and reasonable one-off protocol to address Serious Crimes, because anything else -- no matter how many young activists blog supportively -- is going to cost you customers. Good corporate governance, the kind Steve Jobs understood so much about, requires also understanding how much profitability each type of customer and demographic brings you. You cannot afford to alienate the very customers who made you great in the first place -- the older, long-standing ones who can afford to spend lots of money on your new products, and take the time to help promote your brand, because they have had a good relationship with you for many decades. Up until now. Siding with the anarchist, paranoid left is not going to help you. We need to know who is involved in plotting terror attacks and supplying terrorists, including with advice. We need to know who is raping and prostituting young children. Those are not subject areas where civilised, leading corporate officers choose to shield the criminal.

AppleInsider said:

Actions by the leadership of the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the past month related to the San Bernardino encryption issue demonstrate a shocking level of dishonest and callous disregard for the nation's core principles of democracy. FBI director James B. Comey should issue a formal apology or resign his post, AppleInsider's Daniel Eran Dilger argues.

That alone is reason enough for Comey to immediately dial down the FBI's rhetoric and withdraw the demands for a back door from Apple, made without the consultation of Congress having the opportunity to fully debate the issues involved without the fervent, rushed emotionalism this public smear campaign is attempting to leverage.

Free speech and freedom of assembly do not apply to plots to commit mass murder. The public has a legitimate right to reconstruct all the activities of the terrorist couple that led up to the atrocity. Furthermore, the phone itself belongs to San Bernardino County, meaning its taxpayers. Finally, please keep in mind that the argument you are trying to assert would have protected Richard Nixon, if it were a valid one. It didn't, because it wasn't. Daniel Ellsberg could not have published the Pentagon Papers if the public did not have a right to know. You are on a slippery slope, Apple, no matter how enamored you might be of your position and your privacy. Again, just as Richard Nixon was, this particular terrorist was a public employee, so shielding his phone from scrutiny would be the equivalent of shielding Richard Nixon from being scrutinized for his workplace behavior...

And the next headline I expect to come across on this will reveal that, in fact, there is no such thing as 100% unbreakable encryption, and someone over in Israel or GCHQ already hacked into this phone, and my iPhone 6s, and Tim Cook's, but were just keeping their special capabilities under wraps... Hype, hype, hype. We need to shut down the terror networks, you know? Because in the end it will affect all of us, all our customers and our ability to create freely and sell in a predictable marketplace.