Feds Invoke “All Writs Act” To Compel Apple To Decrypt Smartphones

Privacy advocates were probably over the moon when they heard Apple and Google’s new encryption methods which is basically where neither company has the tools to decrypt a user’s smartphone and access its data, unless of course the data is stored in the cloud either in iCloud or Google Drive.

This has irked authorities to no end as it makes their life a lot harder when it comes to collecting evidence from the smartphone’s of suspects. In fact recently it was suggested that the death of a child could be the result of the authorities unable to pull evidence from the suspect’s phone, which safe to say is rather grim.

Well safe to say that appealing to Apple or Google didn’t work, and neither did scaring them, so the feds are trying a new method which is by invoking the “All Writs Act”. According to the folks at ArsTechnica, authorities have reportedly invoked the act in a bid to compel Apple to help with a couple of criminal cases, one of which involves a seized iPhone 5s.

For those who have never heard of the act, it’s basically an act from the 18th century in which it allows courts to issue a writ/order that can compel a person or a company to do something, which in this case will compel Apple to crack and decrypt the phone of a suspect. So far a couple of judges have agreed that Apple should provide aid to the government.

However Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore added, “It is further ordered that, to the extent that data on the iOS device is encrypted, Apple may provide a copy of the encrypted data to law enforcement but Apple is not required to attempt to decrypt, or otherwise enable law enforcement’s attempts to access any encrypted data.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Legal