I don’t think that is a fair hypothetical. If they could do this safely for one phone, they probably would. The problem is that they don’t want access to one phone, NYC has almost 200 phones they want access to, alone. So that new-found ability to circumvent the security that was put in place so that you can be…

Again, thank you very much for indulging this discussion. I learn a lot with every exchange.

Interesting. You (and perhaps the law in general) sees it as compelling speech. I disagree with data or digital information as being speech. If I have a ledger in a safe, is the ledger speech or something else? The content of the data, whether it is a ledger, a photo or a recorded conversation, may be speech, but the…

I don’t implicitly trust Apple more than a government. What I do trust is motivations. I trust that it is easier for any device or OS developer to create a very tight system to protect data at a local device level than it is to create multiple ways to get into that ‘safe’. It is easier to secure one point of entry,…

Fair point. I guess I assumed the second party to that conversation was not found or cannot be compelled (like being in a non extradition country). Or something like in this case, one of them is now deceased. The only person you have is the one being accused.

“Nope, wrong. The government wants Apple to remove some code that wipes the data partition if there are X incorrect attempts.

I like this debate. Thanks for having it with those of us that are willing to discuss the topic rationally with arguments, and not with hyperbole and insults.

I am no lawyer, so I will loose in any argument regarding it =). But does the current laws simply allow you to search for the information, or does the law also state that I have to present it to you in an easily digestible format?

When, because it will certainly make it to the wild. This is already affirmed by the government, that they have hundreds of devices they want to use this ‘solution’ on. This wont be some program that once created is used, then destroyed. And even if it were, you cannot guarantee it would not still make it out to the…

Wonder how much different this is than the ‘nipple pop’ on women’s costumes?

A new OS would have to be digitally signed by Apple to use on their hardware. So when (not if) that code got into the wild it could be loaded onto any apple device. That would effectively make the 4 digit pass code a formality. It would not take a super computer to try 10,000 combinations. Since the second request is…

I am with you, warrants are the legal way to invade a person’s privacy for a very specific reason. The problem with the back door or weakening of the encryption that provides some level of security from bad guys, and governments that have not yet provided the reasonable search criteria, is that you cannot have it only…

This is Apple’s language. Perhaps it could impact more than just the iphone hardware, but have to assume that their definition is at least accurate in principle.

Great synopsis. A lot of people have not been following the debate but have some rather interesting perspectives given they are not well informed. Hopefully this will help folks understand the issues and the debate.

I watched much of the debate and Director Comey’s testimony. I disagree strongly with your characterization of him. I am one who value’s privacy and I do not want back doors. I don’t want them because they can be exploited, and I don’t want them so that they cannot be misused. However, to me, he came across as a…

Wow.. you play the uniquely interesting ‘Cat-Cello’ too? I have a black one.

That is fair... storage is typically expressed as bytes, bandwidth in bits. So we can either have all the bandwidth expressed in bytes to be the same as storage, or we can have storage change to bits to be the same as bandwidth. I don’t disagree that it would be ‘nice’ but frankly doubt that we can get two industries…

Just don’t bring them to a school, or worse... the airport.

I need one of those condoms. =(

Good point, there is more to bandwidth then the upstream connection.