Google’s Sundar Pichai Backs Apple Over Cracking Shooter’s Phone

Apple CE Tim Cook opposed a demand to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by one San Bernardino shooters.

Google’s Indian-American chief executive Sundar Pichai sided with rival Apple in its battle over a court order to help the FBI access information on the encrypted iPhone used by a Pakistani-American shooter in San Bernardino.

Pichai on Wedenesday directed followers to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook’s open letter on Tuesday night arguing that helping the FBI try to get into the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook would sabotage the security of “tens of millions of American citizens.”

1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016

2/5 We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016

3/5 We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016

4/5 But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016

5/5 Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016

Farook and his Pakistani origin wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people at a social services agency on 2 December in San Bernardino, California, before being killed in a shootout with police.

FBI Director James Comey said last week that investigators still haven’t been able to get at the information on Farook’s iPhone 5c.

A California court on Tuesday directed Apple to help FBI crack the phone by developing software to hack into one of its own devices.