The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed an amicus brief with a California federal court, taking Apple’s side in the dispute about whether the company should be compelled to help the government access an iPhone.
The friend-of-the-court brief set out multiple arguments why Apple should not be forced to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in brute-forcing the passcode on an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook and his wife, Tafsheen Malik, killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2015, before they died in a shootout with police. Authorities later labeled it an act of terrorism.
Last month, a federal magistrate ordered Apple to help the FBI gain access to Farook’s iPhone by creating a heavily modified version of iOS that would disable several security safeguards, then put the software on the device so authorities can bombard it with passcode guesses. The FBI has repeatedly said it believes there is unique information on Farook’s iPhone that will help its investigation.
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