Microsoft’s founder discusses the dispute between technology companies and the US government on backdoors

Feb 14, 2018 11:08 GMT  ·  By
Bill Gates previously said Apple should have helped the FBI unlock the iPhone
   Bill Gates previously said Apple should have helped the FBI unlock the iPhone

Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates suggests that Apple bundling a backdoor into the iPhone isn’t necessarily a bad idea, explaining in a recent interview that tech companies might be on thin ice in the dispute they’re currently involved in against the United States government.

The FBI is a big advocate of backdoors in mobile devices, but Apple and a series of companies have opposed such proposals, claiming that eventually, everyone’s security would be at risk.

Bill Gates, however, thinks that technology companies that refuse government’s proposal play a risky game because they could eventually be forced to comply one way or another, particularly pointing the finger at Apple after it said no to a request to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists in late 2015.

“The companies need to be careful that they're not... advocating things that would prevent government from being able to, under appropriate review, perform the type of functions that we've come to count on,” Gates was quoted as saying by Axios.

Gates supported the FBI’s request to unlock the iPhone

He further warned against the “enthusiasm about making financial transactions anonymous and invisible, and their view that even a clear mass-murdering criminal's communication should never be available to the government,” adding that Apple unlocking an iPhone is “no question of ability, it’s a question of willingness.”

The FBI requested Apple to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, but the company refused to do it, explaining at that point that it didn’t have the necessary tools to do it. Bill Gates seems to suggest otherwise, so the problem wasn’t necessarily that Apple didn’t have the necessary means to hack the iPhone, but the fact that company didn’t want to do it.

Bill Gates’ statement, however, doesn’t come totally out of the blue. Back in 2016 when the tech world tried to resist the US government’s push for backdoors, Microsoft’s co-founder was one of the few people who suggested hacking the iPhone wasn’t a bad thing.

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” he said at that point.

Apple, however, claimed otherwise, explaining that creating a method to unlock just one iPhone compromises the security of all devices, eventually affecting national security.