14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak is one of the important figures defending the Cupertino-based firm in the fight against the United States government, claiming that helping the FBI hack an iPhone would be very risky for each and every one of us.
Speaking to CNBC, Wozniak explained that Apple’s whole business relies on customer trust, so giving up on their own ideas only to do what the government wants is bad and could seriously hurt its image and, ultimately, its sales.
“I believe that Apple's brand recognition and value and profits is largely based on an item called trust. Trust means you believe somebody. You believe you're buying a phone with encryption,” he was quoted as saying by CNET.
“You can’t trust the government”
Furthermore, he reiterated Tim Cook’s words, pointing out that although custom software to break into that iPhone is supposed to be used by the FBI just once, there’s no proof that it can’t be stolen by the bad guys and then used on any iPhone out there. Plus, you never know who is in power, Wozniak continued, questioning the legitimacy of FBI’s request.
"You can't trust who is in power. It's like believing the authority and police wherever they go. Generally, when they write the rules, they're right when they're wrong,” he continued, adding that if he were working for Apple, he tried everything that’s possible to block the creation of a backdoor.
“I'm talking about the general case that goes much deeper than this case. And that is the FBI wants a permanent backdoor built in. And I just think that's wrong,” he said.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has already confirmed that his company would oppose to the judge ruling, so a backdoor that can help the FBI break into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers won’t be created for the time being. Everyone’s calling for discussions in this case, so it’ll be interesting to see how the government plans to convince Apple to take its side.