Apple vs FBI: Apple engineers may refuse court order, report claims
Apple engineers may quit instead of create FBI-friendly operating system.
Apple engineers may quit or refuse to comply with a court order to hack an iPhone, if the US Department of Justice succeeds in its battle with Apple, a according to the New York Times.
Apple has said in a court filing that it would require between six and 10 engineers to create what it has dubbed ‘GovtOS’, a version of iOS that does away with a security barrier that wipes a handset’s data after 10 incorrect password attempts.
These engineers would be drawn from a number of divisions, the tech giant said.
It is unclear whether the US Department of Justice has accounted for a situation where key Apple members refuse to follow the court’s instructions in the event it wins the case, but former federal prosecutor Joseph DeMarco told the New York Times the outcomes would likely not be good for Apple.
“If – and this is a big if – every engineer at Apple who could write the code quit and, also a big if, Apple could demonstrate that this happened to the court’s satisfaction, then Apple could not comply and would not have to,” he said.
DeMarco added that if the engineers refused to code the OS but did not resign, Apple could be held in contempt of court.
Riana Pfefferkorn of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society explained that iPhone maker could then face daily fines if a judge took the opinion that it was deliberately avoiding compliance.
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I admire Apple now. They question authority! They see that FBI is going to violate people’s rights, people’s comfort and they oppose it. I cannot predict the outcome of this situation, but it’s a powerful precedent when the company is not afraid to struggle with the government, when the company fights for clients, for people. I wish them luck!
