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.
