Has Apple "gone too far" with iPhone security?

Smartphone secrets: Does personal privacy outweigh national security?

The FBI director slammed Apple and Google for making smartphone data off-limits to law enforcement, even with a court order.

Apple's CEO said that his business is not interested in people's information.

"Our view is, when we design a new service, we try not to collect data; so we're not reading your email, we're not reading your iMessage," Tim Cook said on "Charlie Rose." "If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessages, we can't provide it; it's encrypted and we don't have the key. It's sort of, the door is closed."

FBI director on privacy, electronic surveillance

In a recent "60 Minutes" interview, FBI director James Comey said those limits threaten national security.

"The notion that people have devices, again, that with court orders, based off a showing of probable cause, in a case with kidnapping, child exploitation or terrorism, we could never open that phone, my sense is we've gone too far when we've gone there," Comey said.

In this case, the individual is the only person who has accesses to their own data.

"What Apple has done here is created an operating system that allows the user to chose an encryption system, for which only the user has the key, nobody else does, not Apple not anyone else," CBS News senior security contributor Michael Morell said on "CBS This Morning." "So the user decides who gets to see that, and that's what Jim Comey is worried about."

For Morell, the issue has two sides, and there's more to it than an anti-law enforcement encryption system.

"The second dimension which Jim didn't really talk about is that, cyber-crime, cyber hacking, is growing," Morell explained. "People want to be able to protect the information on their electronic devices and that's really important here, and that's something we have to think about."

While he recognized increased data protection hinders the intelligence community, it's helpful for users trying to protect data from cyber criminals.

"Cyber crime now makes as much money as the illicit drug trade," Morell said. "So now this is a very, very big deal. There's two sides to this security argument here and I think people have to keep that in mind."

Morrel also noted what he called, a "very, very long history," of law enforcement having to adapt to new technologies.

"There's technologies that create opportunities for them and there are technologies that create challenges," he said. "This is just the latest in a new technology that creates challenges. The FBI and the intelligence community are going to have to figure out how to deal with it."

f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.