Apple’s Corporate Citizenship: A duty to the state, or the people?

Many companies claim to want to be “good corporate citizens.” But just what does that entail? Some might think that that implies, for example, helping out a government in trying to bring a criminal to justice. After all, don’t good citizens try to help their government seek legitimate ends? But the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI reminds us why such an assumption isn’t obviously justified. The position taken by Apple — that helping the FBI hack into an iPhone would put citizens’ privacy in jeopardy — implies that the company sees a distinction between its duty to the people and a duty to their government. >>>

LINK: Apple calls FBI iPhone request ‘unprecedented’ in court filing (by Dan Levine and Joseph Menn for The Toronto Sun)

Apple Inc on Thursday struck back in court against a U.S. government demand that it unlock an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, arguing such a move would violate its free speech rights and override the will of Congress.

The high-stakes fight between Apple and the government burst into the open last week when the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a court order requiring Apple to write new software and take other measures to disable passcode protection and allow access to shooter Rizwan Farook’s iPhone…..

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