Welcome to the tech policy podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech

Freedom, your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate.

I'm Evan Swartzstraber, your host. On today's show, Apple refuses to comply with a court order to unlock one of the phones of the San Bernardino attackers in California in that recent terrorist attack.

Joining me in our DC studio to discuss this is Shameless Francophone and President of Tech Freedom, Baron Soka.

Barron, thank you for joining me.

I'm present. So, Barron, the issue at hand, the FBI has possession of a phone, which was used by one of the

terrorists, and they cannot unlock its contents because they don't know the password.

And guessing every possible combination would not work because in part of the Apple iPhone design is a mechanism that auto erases the data on the phone if you put in too many incorrect passwords. So the court, federal judge, ordered Apple to install software that would disable the auto erase function, which would allow the FBI to

use a method known as brute force, a hacking method where you just simply guess every single

possible password under the sun until you get access. And they cited a 1789 law called the All Writs

Act, which is designed to give courts the power to compel companies or individuals to give up information.

So, Barron, what's going on here?

Well, let's first start with what the All Writs Act is supposed to be for.

If you're in the business, for example, of collecting data for marketing purposes

or keeping certain records, and it turns out that law enforcement has a need for that for some

ongoing criminal case or maybe there's some other plaintiff who needs it, you can be compelled

if you already have that data to make that available. And that

concept is really, whether it's reasonable for you to provide that assistance, if you're making

copies of data you already have, that's pretty clearly reasonable. The All Writs Act covers that.

But this is the first time, or rather the second time.

There was another related case last October where the magistrate judge in Brooklyn ruled against the FBI.

These two cases are the first time where the law enforcement is really trying to use the All Writs Act to essentially change technology.

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