Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Battle Between Police and Tech Firms Intensifies Over Smartphone Access

Battle Between Police and Tech Firms Intensifies Over Smartphone Access 

The number of mobile devices seized in criminal probes is growing. 

Are you okay with the law having access to your smartphone?

Police are now looking for a “backdoor” into mobile devices. Mr. Vance, a Manhattan District attorney has called for a legislation that grants this power to the police. To do so he created a report in which he targeted Apple and Google, specifically saying there should be laws they need to follow to allow them access to smart phone during criminal investigation. He also stated that supervision and home targeting are not enough to conduct these investigations. 

Although Donald Trump first judged Apple for the lack of collaboration, now that he is in the white house he hasn’t made any efforts to weaken smartphone encryption. The law has actually successfully used hackers to their advantage before, but now that there is new technology that is getting harder to do. In addition to that, the costs for hacking services are very pricy. Mr. Vance’s attempts to put in place a law has only resulted in law enforcement working harder to unlock mobile devices while phone companies work to make them even more secure. In his report he also includes cases in which access into a smart phone has allowed them to have successful prosecutions; i.e. videos of child abuse, photos and texts linking murder suspects and victims. 

This relates to our marketing class because both sides of the argument have customers to keep happy. Apple on one end wants to continue giving its users complete privacy and security, while on the other end the law wants to be able to have access to these smartphones to solve important cases and make justice. But which of the two out rules the other? Does the police need to stop being lazy and work their way around smartphones or should Apple give the law what they want, which could potentially lead to them losing customers? 

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-between-police-and-tech-firms-intensifies-over-smartphone-access-1511827189)

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