Apple says investigators ruined best way to access terrorist data
So Apple is saying they told the FBI how they could get a backup of data from the phone , but the FBI told San Bernadino to reset the password, which hosed it. And what about their personal phones they destroyed? It would seem those sources would be much better mined than the 45 days or so of info that may or may not be on this one phone. It could be interpreted as the FBI really wanting that backdoor into all phones, and not about this one.
Your choice.
"Those who are willing to sac-
rifice liberty for security will in the end have and
deserve neither."
The Fourth Amendment is one thing. But
Apple being commanded to create something?!
---A plain attempt to violate Number Thirteen.
However, a subpoena & search warrant are instruments to compel testimony and to turn over evidence... there isn't anything to turn over here, they are using it to compel Apple to do their investigation for them - which I strongly object to. While its true that there isn't a criminal investigation here, the guy is dead, so evidence tampering isn't an issue - the issue is common sense.
1.) They destroyed their personal phones.
2.) Do we really think the guy would be leading a terrorist mastermind network from the $99 iPhone 5C his employer (the County of San Bernardino) gave him?
3.) I completely support Apple's perspective, if you have a search warrant for a house, and there is a safe in the house, you don't go to the safe company and demand a master key that opens any safe in the world. This is stupid. How is this any different than presenting a search warrant to Goldman Sachs or someone at the front door and they have 50 people in the backroom shredding documents as fast as they can... or simple corporate policy to 'shred' every document when no longer needed.
4.) I agree with Apple as well, they botched the backups, obviously by someone who had no idea what they were doing, its not Apple's fault or problem. If anything, this is a wakeup call to America for how much the rest of us here have known all along - it's not some vast power-grab conspiracy by the government, it's extreme incompetence.
I was completely insulted by the FBI director that said 'people that only make & sell stuff for a living'... ONLY? Those 'people that make and sell stuff' have more cash on hand than the US government. They operate in every nation of the world, and subject to every government in the world. If this tool exists, you bet your ass every 2-bit dictator, despot, and brutal regime is going to want their copy of it, and Apple will be just as compelled to give it to them, as anyone to the FBI.
Maybe instead of "only" making & selling stuff.. why don't we point out that this dude "only" has never had a clue where the money comes from to pay his and every other public SERVANT's salary.
Obama really wanted this to be 'workplace violence' when it happened... that supports his gun-grabbing and the narrative that we can welcome and hug every Muslim into the country, even the ones with self-declaration of support for ISIS on their Facebook page, and they will really just love us when they get here. A dude going to Pakistan for his mail-order bride and coming back with someone that totally jihadi'd him up and we slipped her a K-1 Visa doesn't really fit the narrative they want... so they are hoping against hope someone called him a camel jockey or a rag head on his text messages.
The county also had mobile device software purchased & licensed, which would have made this a non-issue, they would have been able to read the data remotely, unlock it, or locate the phone, etc... that's the purpose of the stuff, the County never installed it... so who lost their job over that? yeah right... promotions were handed out.. just promote the incompetent to where they can't hurt anyone.
I stand by my belief that this is about using a subpoena to get a private company to do the government's work for them.
The government used wiretapping to take down the mafia (and replace it with government mafia). Now they have realized that a lot of people are unhappy with our government (they call them terrorists nowadays) and they want to protect our government and its minions.
If I were a defense attorney, I could very easily challenge the admissibility of the phone now. Someone should get fired for such a bone-headed decision.
In the legal arena, how you obtain your evidence is really important. There are only two ways admissible in court: via a warrant or via "plain sight"/"inevitable" finding - i.e. things in a public space. For all such evidence the defense has the right to challenge such evidence if there is belief that the evidence has been tampered with or if such evidence wasn't obtained via a valid warrant or "inevitable" disclosure procedure. In other words, a defense attorney can argue that since the phone was tampered with, any evidence AND any further discovery based on things found on the phone are now inadmissible as evidence AND any actions taken by law enforcement based on suspect evidence including further justification for search warrants, etc. is now ALL suspect and subject to challenge under the rules of evidence submission. And all challenges place the burden of proof on the prosecution.
This really is a big deal.
So, yeah, what the government has basically done here is abandon any hopes for a criminal prosecution of anyone associated with data on that phone.
And compelling a private company to do something borders on both 5th Amendment issues and "takings" clauses, among other legal issues. One can be compelled to turn over evidence or face Obstruction of Justice and/or Contempt charges, but this isn't exactly the same thing, as Apple has no readily-available backdoor into the data and is not the custodian.
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