The defending civil liberties organization and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found 63 cases in legal documents in which the government used the statute ‘All Writs Act’ for different cuts forced Apple and Google to help them access the contents of locked phone. Most of these cases would be drug investigations. Last Monday, the battle between the FBI and Apple ended when the FBI announced that he could unlock the phone of San Bernardino without the help of Apple. Although that specific case ended, this news shows that the issue of security and privacy just started in the United States. It is not known how they ended cases were discovered today, or whether companies helped or not. But some prosecutors (a lawyer who works for a state or government) said that until last year, before the start of the dispute between Apple and the FBI, the judges were used to approve these requests from the feds. That means, whatever happened with the iPhone of San Bernardino is not exceptional: the government has been seeking help from the technology companies since 2008.
What happened with the San Bernardino’s iPhone?
According to the documents of government agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the DEA, and the offices of alcohol, snuff, firearms, and explosives have requested assistance from Google and Apple in cases throughout the United States, like New Mexico, Massachusetts, Oregon and Alabama, as reported by NPR (National Public Radio). Google told The Wall Street Journal that the company has received requests from the government, but never one based on ‘All Writs Act’ as the FBI does to Apple. But if they were to receive oppose, as Apple did, to protect the privacy of their products. ACLU attorney said ” the FBI wants us to think that just going to use the ‘All Writs Act’ in extraordinary cases to force companies to help unlock cell … but it turns out that those orders have become quite ordinary .” The statute ‘All Writs Act’ is an old law that allows security agencies to request any information necessary documents, to any people, to meet their criminal investigations.
