Apple Wins in Brooklyn Battle Over Unlocking iPhone
Christie Smythe and Tiffany Kary
Bloomberg Business | Feb 29, 2016
http://bloom.bg/1WSF9u0

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Apple Inc. won a pivotal clash with the U.S. over privacy rights, with a Brooklyn judge ruling that the company doesn’t have to help unlock a drug dealer’s iPhone.

For months, Apple has rebuffed U.S. requests that it assist investigators seeking to crack into encrypted iPhones. The battle burst into public after a California judge this month ordered the company to aid prosecutors seeking access a terrorist’s phone, but by then Apple had spent months in a Brooklyn court fighting over the drug dealer’s device.

On Monday, Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said the government’s demands on Apple were impractical and excessive.

“It would be absurd to posit that the authority the government sought was anything other than obnoxious to the law,” Orenstein said in a 50-page opinion.

After helping prosecutors unlock at least 70 iPhones, Apple last year stopped cooperating and said the company would no longer serve as the government’s helper. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said this month that U.S. demands for iPhone access are a chilling attack on privacy. The government disagreed, saying Apple is more concerned about its marketing and brand identity than about the safety of the public.