Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone for FBI | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone for FBI

macrumors.com

14 pointssamstokes8 comments

Gates does some great things but he's not thinking far enough into the future here.

If our law enforcement cannot understand that terrorists will simply switch to use another encryption tool, then we have a much bigger problem than unlocking a single iPhone. Our security force does not know how to keep us safe. I'd rather they figure out another way sooner than later.

Or Apple should not be able to compromise their own devices. As it should have been from the beginning.

This dialog should move us in that direction. More people are learning how their phone's security works and Apple will be pressured, hopefully, to live up to the public's expectation of privacy.

"While Apple CEO Tim Cook has consistently argued that unlocking one device would set a dangerous precedent, Gates doesn't believe that it would. He argues that Apple has access to the information, but that they are declining to provide access to the information."

This sounds correct to me. Instead of the government being the gatekeeper (access by way of court orders), Apple is arguing Apple should be. Why? Should we trust Apple won't abuse their power when their own interests are at stake?

Remember Terry Childs? Do you mean to tell me if Apple had an an ex-employee with the keys to their kingdom on his/her iPhone, Apple would just write-off 700 billion dollars? They'd crack that phone without thinking twice about it.

This is so ignorant, the worst part is "there would have to be rules in place to limit how they can access that information."

How did those rules work out for telecom/internet traffic data... The government can now access anyones data, often even without a judge ruling whether it is necessary.

Gates went on to say that there were benefits to governments having some access to information, but that there would have to be rules in place to limit how they can access that information. He says that he hopes people will "have that debate so that safeguards are built and so people do not opt out -- and this will be in country by country -- [to say] it is better that the government does not have access to any information."

Is this not the same thing that Apple is arguing for? Except they are looking for the conversation to happen before the requested action?

I don't know, the way he talks is a little confusing. On another site it quotes him saying,

"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records. Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’," Gates stressed. [1]

I think that means Gates feels this is only a single case situation, and he does not believe Cook's assertion that Comey is trying to set a precedent.

Unfortunately the full interview is behind the Financial Times paywall.

[1] http://sputniknews.com/us/20160223/1035197491/bill-gates-sup...

Unfortunately it is completely different, by cutting this ribbon you allow potentially anyone access to the banks disk drive - this aspect of back doors has been discussed ad nauseam. Its sad to see someone of such public stature deceive the uninformed masses with examples like this.

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