Another Blow To Our Privacy: FBI Gets Court Order Forcing Apple To Install Spyware On iPhone

February 23rd, 2016

Awake Goy

“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.” (source)(source)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has ordered Apple to remove security software located on the phone of a deceased murderer, but Apple has refused. The FBI then obtained a court order compelling them to do so, and Apple made clear their intention to fight the order. In response, the bureau’s lawyers put out the following statement:

Based on Apple’s recent public statement and other statements by Apple, Apple’s current refusal to comply with the Court order, despite the technical feasibility of doing so, instead appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy. (source)

This entire controversy with Apple and the FBI was sparked by the ‘acts of terrorism’ that took place in San Bernardino last December. The FBI asked Apple to release data in their possession, and they provided it, but the FBI soon wanted more. As the statement put out by Apple reveals:

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The government is basically asking Apple to hack their own customer base and undermine years of security measures that protect their customers. The government is using the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify the expansion of its authority:

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands of millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

Apple then went on to explain just how dangerous such a move would be:

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

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We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

You can read their entire press release that was made public last Tuesday HERE.

More Details About The Invasion Of Our Privacy

Ever since Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor, leaked the very first documentation that proved the existence of clandestine black budget operations, more people have started to voice their concern. His leaks had to do with the United States’ massive surveillance program:

The five eyes alliance is sort of an artifact of the post World War II era where the Anglophone countries of the major powers banded together to sort of co-operate and share the costs of intelligence gathering and infrastructure. . . . What the result of this was over decades and decades was sort of a supranational intelligence organisation that doesn’t answer to the laws of its own countries. . . . They not only share information – the reporting of results from intelligence – but they actually share the tools and the infrastructure when they work together against joint targets and services.

According to the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, the Five Eyes intelligence community is a cooperative and complex network of linked autonomous intelligence agencies which is here to protect us from various threats the world faces today, like terrorism. Ask yourself, if terrorist activities are the results of the Western military alliance (read more about that HERE), what is really going on here? Are we seeing false flag terrorism used to justify the infiltration of other countries and heighten the national security state in our own? I believe all of this has been in the works for decades, and it’s continually getting worse. Our rights are being stripped away.

JFK said it best a number of years ago, referring to the fact that national security is used to justify the concealment of information:

The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. (source)

“It is ironic that the U.S. should be fighting monstrously expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy, when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects about which both the Congress and the Commander in Chief have been kept deliberately in the dark.” – Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defense Minister (source)

Our world of secrecy is ridiculous, and it even affects patent applications. As Steven Aftergood, from the Federation of American Scientists, reports:

Thus, the 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20% efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies “in excess of 70-80%.” (source)

How are energy efficient generators a threat to national security? This is one example out of many. You can read more about patent secrecy here.

It’s also important to mention that secrecy goes far beyond surveillance, and you can read more about that HERE.