UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Supports Apple in Phone Privacy Case

[Maura]

As we’ve already seen today, many high profile companies and individual have offered their support to Apple in the on-going court battle with the FBI regarding the unlocking of the iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino terrorist. Now, another very high profile representative of the United Nations has also voiced his support for Apple, reports AppleInsider.

United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, has made an official statement on the matter in which he said,

“In order to address a security-related issue related 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."

The commissioner went on to say that there were other ways in which to continue the investigation without impacting iPhone security, and added that any vulnerabilities revealed by Apple that helped the FBI to unlock the phone could in turn help criminals or dodgy governments to exploit vulnerabilities.

“It is potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers,” said the commissioner. “There have already been a number of concerted efforts by authorities in other States to force IT and communications companies such as Google and Blackberry to expose their customers t o mass surveillance.”

In keeping with his position, the commissioner made particular note of how important encryption is for the protection of human rights activists, journalists, whistleblowers and dissidents.

Source: UN high commissioner on human rights throws weight behind Apple in San Bernardino case