Google CEO Sides With Apple in Refusing to Hack San Bernardino Gunman’s iPhone

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 | February 18, 2016 | By Margo Gothelf

Tech giant Google sided with Apple on Wednesday with its recent battle with the FBI and a judge who ordered them to access encrypted information on an iPhone that belonged to the San Bernardino shooters.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, sided with Apple CEO Tim Cook and his open letter explaining that helping the FBI to bypass the software in order to access the iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters would be damaging to “tens of millions of American citizens.”

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

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— 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

Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were responsible for the terrorist attacks in December at a California government center that left 14 people dead. Farook’s iPhone was recovered during the attacks, yet due to the encryption and password protected software the phone has been of no use to the FBI.

Currently, Apple does not have the technology the judge is asking for. Cook explained that the request “has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.” Pichai’s tweets resonate with Cook’s letter and Apple’s privacy policy explaining that by creating the software they would essentially put themselves in a position of hacking their own customers.

Jan Koum, chief executive of WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned messaging service, also took a stance in support of Apple.

“I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple’s efforts to protect user data, and couldn’t agree more with everything said in their customer letter today,” shared Koum. “We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake.”