Microsoft sides with Apple in battle with FBI

Apple is in a unique battle with the FBI. The U.S. government agency wants it to create some sort of backdoor into iOS so that it can gain access to information when needed, such as in the investigation of a terrorist act. Apple doesn’t want to provide that sort of access and is arguing that it has instead decided to protect consumer privacy.

Microsoft agrees and, according to Bloomberg, will back Apple with an “amicus brief” next week. Since we’re not all lawyers here, I decided to look it up – an amicus brief – or amicus curiae – is “someone who is not a party to a case and offers information that bears on the case, but who has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court,” according to Wikipedia.

The brief may help Congress and Apple better come to terms with new rules that tech giants can follow that will protect the privacy of U.S. citizens while also preventing terrorists who might use such platforms to plan and execute attacks.

Bloomberg noted that Microsoft is in its own privacy conundrum, which Apple has backed, wherein the United States wants the company to “turn over a suspected drug trafficker’s e-mails that are stored in one of the company’s data centers in Ireland.”

U.S. citizens are torn over the battle between Apple and the FBI, and privacy issues as a whole, and it’s certainly a complicated topic that will require input from many, many people.