Apple And Google Devices Have Been Target Of Fed Demands For Years

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Publish Date:
March 31, 2016
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San Jose Mercury News
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Summary

Google and Apple have been targeted for years in dozens of federal investigations seeking orders to unlock mobile devices, amplifying concerns among civil liberties advocates that law enforcement’s efforts pose an ongoing threat to privacy rights, according to court documents assembled by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In revealing that Google, like Apple, has been the target of such government demands, ACLU privacy advocates argue that court records demonstrate the recent showdown between the iPhone giant and the FBI in the San Bernardino terror probe was not an isolated example. The U.S. Justice Department this week abandoned its fight with Apple to force the company to unlock the iPhone of one of the attackers after securing outside help to access the data, but the ACLU maintains the government has been exploiting a 1789 law — the All Writs Act — to seek similar federal court orders for at least the past eight years.

“I think they mixed Apples and Androids here,” said Albert Gidari, director of privacy for Stanford law school’s Center for Internet and Society. “It tells us … about the past, it tells us nothing about tomorrow. If the San Bernardino order is a harbinger of things to come, it’s an ugly future that will be fought over very hard.”

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