The Battle Between National Security and Individual Privacy in the Case of Apple and the Fbi

The Battle Between National Security and Individual Privacy in the case of Apple and the FBI

1. Introduction: Apple disobeys the FBI

Last week Apple publicly declined an FBI order to create a new Operating System designed to function as a “backdoor” to circumvent the security measures which grant access to the iPhone of one of the attackers in the December 2015 San Bernardino shootings. While Apple had cooperated with the FBI multiple times in the past, they declined the current request, and thereby purposely set an important precedent. Apple argued that creating a new Operating System would not only allow the FBI a backdoor to access personal and encrypted information on one individual’s iPhone, but this same Operating System could then be used on all iPhones, and could also become available to hackers and other agents that might want to gain illegitimate access to users iPhone’s. To Apple, this specific request was not only about aiding national security, but also of violating individual privacy of US citizens.

In this paper I will take a closer look on the security versus privacy debate that underlies this Apple / FBI case. I will summarize current legislation on national security measures and privacy, identify the major stakeholders, and will analyze the pro’s and cons of the different positions. I will conclude by providing my solutions to this interesting debate. But first of all, I will start with some background information to provide an appropriate context to the current situation.

2. Background: Terrorist Threats in an Information Age

The Apple case is an interesting example of how today’s world has shifted the balance on the issue of national security and individual privacy, to the side of national security. To be able to adequately determine whether this shift towards national security is appropriate, it is important to view it within the right context. Two interesting phenomena have taken place in the past two decades -- the increasing threat of international and national terrorism, as well as an increasing access to the Internet and the subsequent rise of the “Information Age”.

The terrorist attacks on 9/11, have forever changed the minds of the American people. An increasing fear arose, in which US citizens no longer felt safe in their own country. Legislation that was introduced just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks is still (partly) in place, and a fear of new terrorist threats continues to exist. The attacks in San Bernardino in December 2015, was the second major attack by Muslims that occurred on US soil, albeit on a much smaller scale than the 9/11 attacks.

Just a few years before 9/11, American citizens increasingly started using the Internet. This drastically changed American culture, as massive amounts of data