In this case, the bear is the government. "They decided they weren’t going to poke the bear anymore." "Legal killed it, for reasons you can imagine," another former Apple employee told Reuters. Shortly thereafter, the FBI’s cybercrime agents and its operational technology division came out as staunchly opposed to those plans because it would make it impossible for Apple to recover people's messages for use in investigations.
Just last month, both Democratic and Republican senators considered legislation to ban end-to-end encryption, using unrecoverable evidence in crimes against children as an example.Īpple had been planning to introduce end-to-end encryption for over two years and even told the FBI, according to a Reuters reportthat cited one current and three former Bureau officials, as well as one current and one former Apple employee. government and tech companies that disagree about whether or not end-to-end encryption should be allowed. The company eventually did hand over backups from his iCloud account, but the whole ordeal shone a light on the back-and-forth dialogue going on between the U.S. Attorney General William Barr publicly asked Apple to unlock the two iPhones the shooter had in his possession. The problem, according to law enforcement: Fully locked-down iPhones could be a roadblock to investigations, like the probe into a Saudi Air Force officer who shot three people dead at a Pensacola, Florida naval base last month. But then the FBI stepped in and put the kibosh on those plans. So the company also couldn't fork over the goods to law enforcement anymore.Īpple had intended to make end-to-end encryption of an entire device's data, which would then be uploaded to iCloud, available to customers.
Attorney General William Barr called on Apple to unlock two iPhones used by a Saudi Air Force officer who shot and killed three people on a Florida naval base last month. Apple scrapped plans to let its customers fully encrypt backups of their phone to iCloud after the FBI said it would hamper investigations, according to a Reuters report.