The Department of Justice has dropped its lawsuit with Apple after the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook was finally able to be hacked into. According to an Israeli newspaper, Cellebrite, an Israeli mobile forensics company, was able to hack into the iPhone without Apple's creation of a backdoor method of accessing personal iPhone data.
This is definitely a major step forward in this particular case; however, many questions still surround this issue. How much privacy do we really have under the Constitution? Is it legal and ethical to take away privacy to ensure safety? Is safety worth giving up our privacy for? Is the government having access to personal data acceptable all the time (which is what Apple claims its creation of a code to access the data would give the government) or just in special cases, such as with the terrorist attack?
I personally feel like when investigating a terror attack, the government should be able to access every bit of information that could give them intel. The personal data of a deceased terrorist should absolutely be accessed and put to use by the government to protect Americans and prevent more situations like the one in San Bernardino from happening. His phone may include names of others planning terror attacks, ISIS strategies etc., that might never have been known until it was too late unless the phone can be accessed. Or, it may not. But I personally would rather the government have the upper hand in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
I do not think that government agencies should be able to monitor any of our phones whenever they please without any reason or suspicion to do so, but this is an exceptional circumstance which requires exceptional measures. What is on that phone may have the ability to save American lives. There are plenty of people who agree with this; however, there are also many who do not agree. This raises another question -- how can we find a solution that most of us can agree upon? And is there one?
It is unavoidable that in this age of technology, issues like this will come up. But we need to come to a solution on how to handle situations like this. This issue will not go away, and it is becoming a hotbed of controversy. There is most likely no way to satisfy everyone -- something has to be sacrificed or compromised regardless of how situations like this will be handled in the future. Yes, privacy is important. Security is also important. What it really boils down to is this question -- what are we willing to sacrifice, and how much of it?
