The United States Justice Department said Apple's arguments over the high-profile case regarding the unlocking of one of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone are false and just a diversion. They cited in their brief that Apple has also deliberately designed the encryption to avoid assisting law enforcement officials requesting for their help.
As recalled by Reuters, the case between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Apple Inc. started last month when the latter did not abide to the court order requiring them to write a new software or other measures to disable the passcode protection on Syed Rizwan Farook's phone. Apple has deemed the request as a possible precedent to future cases and that it could result to criminals and governments abusing the requested action.
The Justice Department's recently submitted brief is said to be their last chance to make a case ahead of the hearing set for March 22. The prosecutors noted in their brief that Apple has attacked the FBI investigation as an inferior and that the company portrayed themselves as the "primary guardian" of the privacy of Americans, Wired reported.
The brief also noted that the rhetoric of Apple is not only false but is also corrosive to the institutions that are best able to safeguard the people's liberty and rights. The institutions named are the courts, the Fourth Amendment, the laws, and the democratically elected branches of the government.
It also questioned Apple's unwillingness to help the government. They cited the incident wherein China demanded information from Apple regarding more than four thousand iPhone units in the first half of 2015 and during that time, the tech giant produced 74 percent of the data demanded.
The Justice Department also that Apple saying it would be burdensome for them to disable the passcode protection of the iPhone in question is not true as they gross hundreds of billions of dollars annually. They pointed out that only a handful of their 100,000 employees will be pulled out from their jobs to work on the iPhone case.
Apple's general counsel Bruce Sewell then released a statement about the claims of the Department of Justice. BBC reported that Sewell thinks the brief filed is out of desperation and that anyone who disagrees with the government is evil and Anti-American. Apple has until March 15 to respond to the brief.
Tech industry leaders such as the owners of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and more have filed their legal briefs days ago supporting Apple. On the other hand, the Justice Department has received support from law enforcement groups and some of the relatives of the San Bernardino shooting victims.
