Google's Sundar Pichai Backs Apple Over Cracking Shooter's Phone
WASHINGTON: Google's Indian-American chief executive Sundar Pichai sided with rival Apple in its battle over a court order to help the FBI access information on the encrypted iPhone used by a Pakistani-American shooter in San Bernardino.
Pichai Wedenesday directed followers to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook's open letter Tuesday night arguing that helping the FBI try to get into the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook would sabotage the security of "tens of millions of American citizens."
Farook and his Pakistani origin wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people at a social services agency Dec 2 in San Bernardino, California, before being killed in a shootout with police.
FBI Director James Comey said last week that investigators still haven't been able to get at the information on Farook's iPhone 5c.
A Riverside, California court Tuesday directed Apple to help FBI crack the phone by developing software to hack into one of its own devices.
In a series of tweets Wednesday evening, Pichai argued that even that would essentially put tech companies in the position of hacking their own customers:
1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy.
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