Apple-FBI Case Is `Pandora's Box' Against Human Rights, UN Says
- UN high commissioner urges U.S. authorities to great caution
- Terrorist case can be investigated without phone unlocking: UN
An Apple Inc. iPhone 6S smartphone.
Photographer: Xaume Olleros/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
What U.S. courts decide about Apple Inc.’s iPhone encryption risks hurting millions of people’s digital, physical and financial security, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights announced in a statement Friday, adding his voice to those opposing a judge’s order to unlock the phone of a dead terrorist.
While the government wants Apple to write bespoke software that would help unlock an iPhone to aid a criminal investigation, there are other ways to advance the case at hand without undermining the phones’ security features, the UN’s Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein said. Governments, security forces and criminals are among groups that could abuse a security flaw if there is one, he said.