Apple’s fight with US law enforcement could speed advancement of government-proof devices safeguards

By

Apple Inc. and the U.S. law enforcement had their legal showdown over issues of encryption. But the battle between the company and the FBI will allegedly convince tech companies to boost their efforts to engineer safeguards against government interruption.

According to Reuters, Apple Inc. is already a well-known industry marketing highly secure phones and mobile applications. An executive of the tech company even claimed that the company will do whatever efforts to bolster its encryption if it wins in court battle.

The lawsuit is against the federal government, which last week already secured a court order. It noted that Apple engineers need to help extract data from phone associated with the mass shootings in San Bernardino.

The Apple executive also talked about the issue on a condition of secrecy. The Apple spokesperson even declined to leave a comment publicly regarding the details of the court order.

Moreover, Gadgets 360 reported that if Apple loses the court proceedings, the legal standard is to give the U.S. government broad authority to order other tech companies in breaking into encrypted products. However, if the government will be declared victorious of the court case, U.S. tech companies will potentially wave their investments in security systems that even the their own engineers can't access, stated Jonathan Zittrain, a co-founder of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Zittrain even said, "A success for the government in this case may further spur Apple and others to develop devices that the makers aren't privileged to crack," he said. In fact, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others in Silicon Valley have openly showed their support to Apple in the court case. But Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes that tech companies should be compelled to cooperate with the FBI in terrorism investigations, as mentioned in Engineering & Technology Magazine.

The point of this move, as stated by Joey De la Garza, the chief information security officer of a fast-growing storage provider Box, is to make it possible for the company to access its customers' data, even under a government order. He insisted, "Our goal is to achieve a 'zero-knowledge' state" for the company, he said, "where our customers have total control over their data."

Meanwhile, it is still unclear whether Apple can or would even want to make smartphones the company can't access. The employees of the tech company familiar with its security strategy even revealed that Apple had no such plans.

Tags
Apple, Apple news, Apple Inc

© 2025 Lawyer Herald All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Discussion
More Law & Society
No Jail for Medical Student Found Guilty of Raping Drunk

No Jail for Medical Student Found Guilty of Raping Drunk Woman Who 'Couldn't Possibly Consent': He Is 'Young' and 'Talented'

Police Chief Spiked Officers' Coffee With Viagra, Left Body Hair

Police Chief Terrorized Staff by Pooping on the Floor, Spiking Coffee with Viagra and Sprinkling Body Hair on Food: Complaint

Texas Man Rammed Parked Tesla

Texas Man Rammed ATV Into Parked Tesla 'at Full Speed,' Keyed 'Elon' Into Side of Others: Police

Dumpster Diving Pedo_03282025_1

Binders of Child Porn Discovered in Dumpster by Homeless Duo Leads Man to Admit to Molesting Dozens of Children: Police