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A Tear for The Judiciary – The San Bernardino iPhone
THIS IS NOT AN ANALOGY, simply a question about what world you would choose to live within
A father of 3 young children is at home filming his kids playing in the family garden. He is filming them using his own cellphone when he hears a commotion in the street over the other side of his garden fence.
A confrontation is taking place between two men whom he does not know but it appears to be escalating and he thinks he sees a gun, so he tells his kids to get in the house then peers back over the fence.
He zooms the cellphone camera in on the two men. His wife calls to him but he tells her to stay in the house with the kids.
Holding the phone as still as he can he captures the events as they unfold. To his shock one of the men raises a gun and fires three shots.
Two of the shots hit the other man and he falls dead to the floor, the third passes his head and hits the father who has filmed the confrontation, killing him instantly. The phone falls to the ground on the other side of the fence and the 'close' button is triggered.
The police find the phone but the wife does not know the passcode. The video has not uploaded to any cloud services. The only copy is on the phone.
Here's my question...
Do you want a company that can assist in the opening of that phone and recovery of the video to refuse because it feels that there is a wider issue at play than just this one man.
Do you want a police force that correctly acquires a warrant with judicial oversight to be told by that company that they will do everything in their power to avoid compliance due to the precedent that they feel it might set for all future law enforcement worldwide?
Do you want the wife, who wants the phone opened and her husband's killer caught and prosecuted, to be told by the company that whilst they are sorry for her loss they can't bring themselves to do it because of the 'bigger picture'?
The issue with writing this scenario is that it focuses on strong emotions and in some cases, the emotions surrounding an issue play a part only to confuse the facts and deflect from that which is central to that one case.
The San Bernardino iPhone is such a case in point.
The American public was rightly, deeply hurt by the snooping and deceit of The NSA...but The SB iPhone is not that.
The Patriot Act and the invasive nature of that upon the human rights of all people was abhorrent...but The SB iPhone is not that.
The discussions of Government about the inclusion of disgraceful permanent backdoors in cellphone is a disgusting subject to even entertain...but the SB iPhone is not that
The thought that oppressive regimes the world over are awaiting the outcome of the tussles between Apple and The FBI is naive to the point of laughable and The SB iPhone will have zero bearing on that.
I surely don't want a world with permanent backdoors to cellphones but I do want a world where, with proper judicial oversight of the process, a company can be compelled to assist the law enforcement agencies in their investigations by assisting in opening a device, on a 'one warrant one device' basis, not at the expense of an accused persons 'right to silence' and most certainly not without a warrant.
What I most certainly DO NOT want is a world where the judiciary are bypassed or one where the corporation can say no to the checks and balances against government which the judiciary affords. Your judiciary ARE NOT YOUR GOVERNMENTS PUPPET. They are a force that defends you from an overzealous government and prevents your corporations from being government.
Apart from the sadness of the loss of 14 lives in the San Bernardino case, perhaps the greatest sadness for me is the disrespect that is being shown for a correctly issued legal warrant. BOTH parties should see shame that they have used the judiciary in this case to press an agenda to which this case does not apply.
Ewen.
Author
Ewen Rankin