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Analytical Essay: Why Apple Should Help The FBI

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On December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed in a terrorist attack in the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. The attack consisted of a mass shooting and an attempted bombing. The two Muslim terrorists who led the attack had in prior days posted, via social media, about their affiliation with the radical group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In researching this national security case, the FBI has collected the iPhone 5c of one of the terrorists, Syed Farook. Farook stopped backing up to the iCloud in late October, leaving his final month of conversations solely on his cellular device. In unlocking the iPhone, however, the FBI risks wiping all of the phone’s data due to Apple’s encryption design. To counteract this risk and further its investigation, …show more content…

The company is obstructing the investigation by preventing the FBI from getting the information they need to try to prevent an incident like that from happening again. Whether it breaks the customer privacy policy or not, it can potentially put other people in danger; Apple, as one of the biggest and widely known companies in the world, shouldn't want that on its back. Another reason Apple should help the FBI is because its CEO, Tim Cook, is a citizen of the US. He should find it to be one of his civic duties as an American to do what's best for his country, especially since there is terrorist attack tied to the matter.
-Mercedes Edwards ‘16

“I believe Apple should help the FBI unlock a terrorist’s phone. Although doing this risks customer privacy, it's the price we have to pay for valuable information that could keep us safe in the long run. The ideal situation would be for Apple to create a way to unlock the iPhone without deleting information just this once and keep the way to do this confidential.”
-Nellie Spackman

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