Is Apple Really Wrong?

Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of Apple. Even though their seemingly-unstoppable momentum has slowed a bit the past few years, you can make the case that their products and user experience ecosystem is second to none. This week’s developments are clearly controversial and have me (and lots of other Americans) extremely torn.

On Tuesday, a federal magistrate ordered Apple to assist in the San Bernardino terror attack investigation by designing a new operating system to disable the feature that erases all contents after 10 failed passcode attempts. This would allow the FBI to unlock the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people on Dec. 2.

The phone is actually owned by Farook's former employer, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. The department has supported federal investigators' requests to search the contents of the device.

On Wednesday, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said the company would oppose the order. "The implications of the government's demands are chilling," he said in a note to customers. "If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data."

In a blog post, Dallas Mavericks' owner and tech “Shark” Mark Cuban said Tim Cook did the "exact right thing by not complying with the order.” Cuban wrote “Every tool that protects our privacy and liberties against oppression, tyranny, madmen and worse can often be used to take those very precious rights from us… We must stand up for our rights to free speech and liberty."

But is this a simple, “black and white” issue? I don’t think it is.

There are certainly those who would be willing to sacrifice personal freedoms in the name of national security. They’re the “innocent people have nothing to hide” crowd, who strongly feel that we need to combat terrorism with any means possible. And maybe they’re right.

Then there are those who voraciously caution about a "slippery slope" when exceptions are made to personal privacy and the potential for abuse. What if technology was hijacked for nefarious purposes by terrorists or governments? It’s happened before.

Would you really want anyone having unauthorized access to your conversations, emails, financial records, health info or (gasp!) Google searches?

Before we let the genie out of the bottle, we need to take a breath, examine the pros and cons and then get it right.