FBI Wants to Control All iPhones by Yasmine B (5th pd)

     The FBI Director James Comey came out and in short, basically said that Apple and Google are aiding criminals by selling encrypted cellphones that prevent the FBI from getting information from them. In Comey's statement, he explains how these new phones create a "black hole for law enforcement" by allowing for potential criminals to use these special iPhones to carry out their illegal actions without the government knowing about it. The only way this data is visible is if the user backs up the information on the cellphone to a cloud computer, but for Comey, this is not enough. "...Uploading to the cloud doesn't include all of the stored data on a bad guy's phone, which has the potential to create a black hole for law enforcement. And if the bad guys don't back up their phones routinely or of they opt out of uploading to the cloud, the data will only be found on the encrypted devices." He finds these devices specifically alarming because he says that they are the equivalent of a closet that cannot be opened, or a safe that cannot be hacked, which leaves law enforcement completely in the dark in tracking actual and/or potential criminal activity.
     If I knew where to buy one of these phones I certainly would try to get my hands on one. Ever since Snowden's revealing of the PRISM software the NSA was using to spy on millions of Americans for no reason, I do not trust a word that the government says when it comes to "protecting our people" and "preventing terrorism" etc. I understand that 9/11 was a very traumatic event, but if the government really wanted to focus on ending the war on terror, then they should shift their focus to overseas instead of looking through my emails and monitoring what I post on Facebook. The only reason that the FBI is upset about these new phones is because they cannot get this information quietly and discretely, they would have to get an actual search warrant to request the information they need from Apple or Google. Even though Comey does have some good intentions, you still have to keep a cautious eye out and not put too much trust in authority. Like James Madison said in The Federalist No. 51, "You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself..." The FBI is already governing us by having easy access to our personal information and records as it is, so we have to make sure that they don't abuse their power and go out of hand by being able to obtain that information without a warrant. The right to privacy was one of the many freedoms that our founding fathers and many others sacrificed everything for; so why should we give up this right so easily now?

Link to article:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/16/politics/comey-apple-google-encryption-help-terrorists/index.html