For the past few days, there has been an ongoing dispute between Apple and the FBI concerning hacking a phone that was connected to the San Bernardino attack that occurred in December. For those that do not know, on December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik went to the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino and began to shoot. A total of 14 people were killed and 21 were wounded from the attack (Camila Domonoske). Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik both died in a police chase. The police began to search and tried to connect the dots to why they would do this and if the terrorist group ISIS was involved. Through their searches, they found guns and an iPhone 5C. The iPhone had a lock on it and the government was unable to access the information on the phone.

The U.S. government believes that the information on this phone could help them know more about the shooting. Since the government is not able to open the phone, they have asked Apple to create a software that will able to override the passcode and give the government access to the contents inside the phone. However, Apple does not want to create the software because it violates Apple Users’ privacy. Once this software is created someone might get a hold of it and use it for the wrong reasons which might put all Apple users in danger of having their information leaked (Camila Domonoske and Alina Selyukh).

The government argues that Apple should do everything in their power to help the government in their investigation. Some say that Apple is doing the right thing because they are protecting the privacy of their customers. Others disagree and want Apple to create the software. Privacy is one of the main reasons why Apple will not create the software.

Essentially, Apple’s decision to avoid creating the software for the government is correct because they are protecting their customers. Their is no happy medium to this issue because either way the software would be created and therefore the customers privacy would be in danger. Both sides bring up good arguments and points toward the opening of the phone. At first I thought the solution was easy which is having Apple create the software, help the government then destroy the software or keep it safely guarded. This would not be able to work because then all the hackers would be targeting Apple. The decision is up to Apple whether or not they want to risk their customers privacy to help the government.

Apple wrote a letter to their customers talking about the legal dispute and what Apple stands by (privacy and security). Click here to read the Apple letter.