Apple v FBI: Values First (#01)

In the media: DOJ warns that it could compel Apple to hand over iOS source code

It would be extremely challenging for Apple to agree to introduce backdoor code to its operating system to allow authorised agencies to get into Apple devices.

Not because it would expose personal (occasionally – intimate) information of millions of customers to the law enforcement and intelligence communities that don’t exactly have the best record when it comes to civil liberties.

Not even because if the “good” guys can gain access to extensive customer data, the “bad” ones will probably beat them to it.

Apple would find it very challenging to yield because it would have to go against one of its founding principles. 

One of the first goals of Silicon Valley pioneers was to make computers personal to liberate and empower average consumers, provide them with access to technology previously available exclusively to the corporate establishment, scientific elite and the military.

Since the birth of Mac, Apple has positioned itself as a very vocal proponent of individual liberties in the broadest of senses. The Apple way is about non-conformity, fresh ideas and challenging the status quo.

One could argue that the company’s rise of the past 19 years has a lot to do with the sincerity of its culture – sincerity that has helped Apple follow a very clear vision when it came to product, service and experience development.

Denouncing its ideology, unless under existential threat, would cause irreparable harm to the company’s ethos. Without which Apple would become the manufacturer of easy-to-use, nice-looking and somewhat expensive gadgets – hardly the positioning one conquers the world with.

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