By Thomas Bank
Staff Writer

“If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about,” has been a common phrase used by Americans since 2013 when Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA, leaked classified documents detailing extensive internet and phone surveillance by the American government. Although Snowden has since fled the United States to seek temporary asylum in Russia, his disclosures present the debate of how much the government should surveil its citizens without their consent. This debate rages on as the FBI desperately battles for a back-door to an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, an alleged San Bernardino shooter.

Apple, in the software used to lock iPhones, has a function that erases the data on the phone after too many login attempts. The federal government has made no attempts to hide their opposition to this function when Google and Apple announced their implementation of it on newer phones.

You may be asking yourself “How will this back-door hurt me?” The answer is clear: this back-door is accessible to anyone. This includes government agencies, hackers and hostile authoritarian governments such as Russia and China that will demand greater access to Apple’s mobile data if this back-door is created. Not to mention the fact that the United States failed to protect its on data during a disgusting data breach of the Office of Personnel Management that compromised the sensitive information of over 20 million people in 2015.

Fortunately, Apple officials have denied the request to create a back-door for the NSA and Tim Cook has taken to making a statement defending his decision against it, acknowledging the negative repercussions that will undoubtedly follow. “The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control,” he wrote.

Another criticism of a back-door for Apple is that it is unconstitutional. In the past 15 years, the American government has dismantled our rights to privacy and unlawful search and seizure disguised as “anti-terrorism.” A back-door to Apple would add one more example of how the government has disregarded our constitutional rights to privacy.