James Comey, the head of the FBI, is angry. He shouldn’t be, and his anger deserves a response.
Apple caused a stir recently with its release of the iPhone 6, not only because the company hailed as the font of innovation now seemed in catch-up mode to Google, but because it closed a backdoor.
A backdoor in the computer world refers to a way to gain access into a piece of hardware or software that circumvents normal protections. Passwords on smartphones, for example, keep unauthorized users out. But just in case you forgot your password, Apple used to keep a copy. Of course, that meant it had the ability to give that password to others — say, police or national security folks — with an interest in your information.
That backdoor is now gone. If you forget your password, enjoy the paperweight you now have. And even if you’re a cop with a warrant, there’s nothing Apple can do to help: Unless an owner reveals the password, what’s on the phone remains private — or private, at least, for perhaps five years. (That is Apple’s estimate of how long it might take a code-cracker to break a six-character password.)
Law enforcement is appalled. Apple is “marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,” said the FBI’s Comey. “There will come a day . . . when it will matter a great, great deal to the lives of people of all kinds that we be able to with judicial authorization gain access to a kidnapper’s or a terrorist or a criminal’s device. I just want to make sure we have a good conversation in this country before that day comes. I’d hate to have people look at me and say, ‘Well, how come you can’t save this kid?’”
Let the conversation begin. And let’s start with this: The future Comey fears is already here, and indeed, it’s been around for quite some time. Apple’s doing nothing new.
Google, for instance, has for years allowed users to encrypt their phones (although with Apple’s announcement, Google also said that the encryption feature will now be turned on by default). Unlike Apple, Google never had a backdoor — or at least one it knew of. Also, the company encourages all manner of third-party software developers to create apps and add-ons; many of those help users secure the information on their devices.
This isn’t new with smartphones, either. Ever since the late 1980s, when renegade software developer Phil Zimmerman created a way for ordinary users to encrypt data (called PGP, or “Pretty Good Privacy”), it’s been easy for desktop and laptop computer users to make all of their files unreadable to outsiders. Smartphones are now just following that well-trod path.
Of course, most of us don’t bother with encryption, which is probably a mistake. But sophisticated terrorists or kidnappers? Of course they do. In addition, even if the government somehow were able to compel Apple to reinstall a backdoor, there are ways around that: It’s easy to remotely wipe out all of the data on a smartphone. (A bizarre real-life case: Police apparently wrapped tin foil around the smartphone of former Patriots’ player Aaron Hernandez to prevent it from being wiped clean.)
There’s another problem law enforcement faces with trying to keep its access to smartphones: It could wipe out a key American industry.
Apple likes to cloak its new protections in saintly garb, but in truth it’s just good business. After Edward Snowden, users are demanding better security. If a company doesn’t deliver, they’ll go elsewhere. Moreover, Apple, Google, and other big American high-tech companies sell worldwide. Citizens in nations across the globe won’t buy their devices if they think the United States can so easily pry.
The FBI’s worries also come in this context: We are the most-surveilled people of all time. The future George Orwell envisioned is here: Most of us carry on our person devices that allow government to track our every movement (encryption doesn’t change that). Phone calls can be intercepted, cameras on the street watch what we’re doing, and almost all of our data are in the cloud. Apple may have struck a small blow for privacy but really, the FBI needn’t worry. Our secrets are still quite few.
This column originally appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe on October 5, 2014.