In news from the legal standoff between Apple and the FBI, the tech giant has gained a number of prominent allies in recent days, including leading security experts, the United Nations human rights chief and the husband of a woman who was injured in the San Bernardino attack. The FBI is seeking to force Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the suspected shooters in the San Bernardino attack. One of Apple’s supporters is Salihin Kondoker, whose wife, Anies, was shot three times during the attack last December. He submitted a letter to the judge in the case, writing that Apple is “worried that this software the government wants them to use will be used against millions of other innocent people. I share their fear.” U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein echoed this sentiment during a briefing in Geneva Thursday.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein: “In order to address a security-related issue linked to encryption in one case, the authorities risk unlocking a Pandora’s box that could have extremely damaging implications for the human rights of many millions of people, including their physical and financial security. And this is not just about one case and one IT company in one country. It will have tremendous ramifications for the future of individual security elsewhere.”