Apple resisting magistrate order to share iPhone information

Published: Updated:
NBC Los Angeles / MGN

WASHINGTON (AP) – Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says his company will fight a federal magistrate’s order to hack its users in connection with the investigation of the San Bernardino, California shootings, asserting that would undermine encryption by creating a backdoor that could potentially be used on other future devices.

Cook’s ferocious response, posted early Wednesday on the company’s website, came after an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym that Apple Inc. help the Obama administration break into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the December attack.

The first-of-its-kind ruling was a significant victory for the Justice Department in a technology policy debate that pits digital privacy against national security interests.

Noting the order Tuesday from federal Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in California, Cook said “this moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.”

Cook argued that the order “has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.”

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