WASHINGTON—Apple Inc. and the U.S. government are making their cases before anyone steps into a courtroom over a judge’s order forcing Apple to help the FBI hack into an iPhone in a terrorism case.
Their legal arguments are expected to pit digital privacy rights against national security interests, and could affect millions of cellphone users.
Apple has until next Friday to protest in court the decision by a U.S. magistrate judge in California, according to two people familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe ongoing, private legal discussions.
One person said Apple had requested an extension and that the judge granted it during a teleconference Thursday with lawyers in the case. Prosecutors had opposed the request, the person said. The publicly available court docket wasn’t immediately updated to reflect the new schedule.
Meanwhile, the public relations campaigns are already under way.
Is Apple adequately cooperating with federal agents investigating last year’s deadly attack in San Bernardino, California? Is this simply a dispute to recover information from an iPhone used by the gunman, or a broader fight affecting the privacy rights of citizens who use Apple’s flagship product? Is this about profits or patriotism?
The Justice Department asked the judge to order Apple to create sophisticated software that the FBI could load onto the phone to bypass a self-destruct feature that erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful attempts to guess the unlocking passcode. Prosecutors said Apple could help the FBI “but has declined to provide that assistance voluntarily,” and they said Apple could perform the task easily.
That point is crucial because the government can’t compel a company’s help in some cases if doing so would be unreasonably burdensome, even though the U.S. would almost certainly pay Apple for the work.
Apple CEO Tim Cook distanced the company from the suggestion that it was protecting the privacy of an extremist. “The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime,” Cook said. “We have no sympathy for terrorists.”
