The U.S. said it has gained access to the data on an iPhone used by a terrorist and no longer needs Apple Inc.’s assistance, marking an end to a legal clash that was poised to redraw boundaries between personal privacy and national security in the mobile Internet age.
The Justice Department said a week ago that it was approached by an unidentified third party about a possible method to get into the phone. The government said in a court filing Monday that it “has now successfully accessed the data stored” on the iPhone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife carried out a December attack in San Bernardino, California. No details were provided on how investigators got the data.