The tech giant has been accused of providing assistance to Chinese government while backing out from the homeland court order.
On Thursday, the Silicon-Valley tech giant yet again came under the axe of harsh criticism of the Justice Department who –according to company’s lawyers –“ridiculously” and “desperately” put a charge on the tech titan for providing assistance to Chinese government so that they can access customer phone data while simultaneously posing strong resistance in helping the U.S. government to unlock an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in last year’s callous San Bernardino attacks. The iPhone maker has been greatly miffed by the accusations put on them and the executives denied that the company has surrendered to Chinese government demands while ignoring the home country’s court order.
Against the court order subpoenaed by the Justice Department, the $573 billion organization has counter-argued that in the event where the company loses to the Justice Department then the foreign leaders who, in comparison with U.S., lack respect for human rights will coerce the tech giant to aid them in accessing the data of their customers. The company fears that tarnishing the privacy of the consumers will have serious consequences. The disagreement between the Apple and the FBI heated and now the case has reached to the Supreme Court. The tech titan has got the support of other technology companies while the law enforcement organizations have got the back of the FBI.
In the midst of the nasty legal battle, the Justice Department has accused the company of forwarding co-ordination to China instead of helping their own homeland. The federal prosecutors blamed the tech giant of making special accommodations in China. The prosecutors blame that the company has been forwarding great deal for the Chinese government. They added that when the Chinese government asked the tech titan to provide the data of around 4,000 iPhones the company complied without showing resistance.
The government filing also highlighted the fact that the Cupertino, Calif. firm conveniently moved the data of the Chinese users to the exclusive servers of the Chinese government in addition of installing a different protocol for Chinese phones. However, the company responded rather aggressively to all the accusations coming its way.
Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell has been reported to have said: “In 30 years of practice, I don’t think I have ever seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case.” He also labeled the document as a “cheap shot.”
The company explained that the customers data was only transferred to the stated owned China Telecom, back in 2014, in order to provide improved performance for the Chinese customers. Apple added that the data stored is not accessible by China Telecom and was appropriately encrypted.
Miffed by the allegations put on it, the Silicon Valley business stated that when the U.S. law enforcement officials asked for the information relating to almost 9,717 smartphones the company complied and produced the data around 81% time.
Apple is showing resistance only because it fears that the potential software which the FBI is asking it to create will add a backdoor to the hackers to tarnish the privacy of the consumers. However, the FBI is not asking for universal software but a key to the subject device used by one of the terrorists. The legal battle is still on and the time will tell how the parties came out of it.
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