Was the FBI Justified in trying to get Apple to hack iPhones?

Terrorism. The single word that everybody has heard of, and knows plenty of examples of. Terrorism is a big threat in today’s society, but is finding elusive terrorists worth hacking into every person’s phone? Apple doesn’t think so. Apple was right to refuse to help the FBI in their search for a hacking software to hack into iPhones.

​Hacking into phones for national security reasons is perfectly acceptable to the public, but Apple didn’t aid the FBI in their quest to find an Apple hacking software for corporate security reasons. According to Randall G. Holcombe, “Apple phones have features that protect the privacy of information people have on them. The Fourth Amendment guarantees people this right to privacy. Individuals have the right to possess information without having to share it with the government. And Apple has the right to provide products that help individuals protect this right.”, thus threatening rights, and security had Apple given in to the FBI. If Apple would’ve given in to the FBI’s requests for a hacking software, it would’ve caused a breach in security, and a violation of the peoples’ rights.

Many people that say that hacking into phones would help extinguish the terrorist threat, that hacking into ordinary people’s phones is the only way to keep the terrorists at bay. According to Whitt Flora, “U.S. intelligence experts have warned for years that there may be several thousand Islamic terrorists embedded in America awaiting similar orders.”, and hacking into iPhones, will help prevent these future acts of terrorism. Although this is very likely to be true, in today’s society, it would be very hard to track down these terrorists. First off, the FBI would have to look on everyone’s phone, although once the word gets out, It’s going to get much harder to track them down.

No matter what happens, most things can be traced back to money, even another reason that Apple didn’t give the FBI an Apple hacking software. If Apple would’ve given into the FBI’s demands, the value of their products would’ve plummeted. Randall G. Holcombe’s article on this issue states that “Apple was refusing to unlock the phone for business reasons, to protect the value of its brand”, in which the brand value would decrease. He also gives a question, “Should the government be in a position to force companies to engage in activities that erode the value of their brand?”. He obviously thinks that this would be unjust. During World War Two, the government could force companies to help in the war, this was stopped after the war, but the FBI is trying to do the same thing now, in normal times.

Apple was right to refuse to help the FBI in their search for a hacking software to hack into iPhones.The FBI was trying to force Apple to give up an Apple hacking software, surpassing legal, constitutional rights, all the while breaching the security of Apple customers, and decreasing the value of their brand.