Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
– Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience (1849)
Yesterday, the New York Times published an extremely important article examining whether Apple engineers are prepared to potentially refuse government orders they deem unethical. If so, it would represent a historical and courageous moment of civil disobedience in the spirt of Edward Snowden, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry David Thoreau and countless others forgotten by the fog of history. Indeed, if we are to regain any semblance of freedom and liberty, we must rediscover our proud heritage of civil disobedience.
In the modern world, with so much government surveillance being done behind the scenes and via technology, we’ve become increasingly dependent on individuals within the tech sector to stand up and do the right thing. This puts us in a precarious situation, which is why we must be prepared to stand by and support any and all Apple employees who defend our civil liberties against the unconstitutional surveillance leviathan.
We learn from the New York Times:
SAN FRANCISCO — If the F.B.I. wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers.
Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.
Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the development of mobile products and security, as well as former security engineers and executives.
It also speaks directly to arguments Apple has made in legal documents that the government’s demand curbs free speech by asking the company to order people to do things that they consider offensive.
“Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in the company’s final brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.
The fear of losing a paycheck may not have much of an impact on security engineers whose skills are in high demand. Indeed, hiring them could be a badge of honor among other tech companies that share Apple’s skepticism of the government’s intentions.
“If someone attempts to force them to work on something that’s outside their personal values, they can expect to find a position that’s a better fit somewhere else,” said Window Snyder, the chief security officer at the start-up Fastly and a former senior product manager in Apple’s security and privacy division.
“In the hierarchy of civil disobedience, a computer scientist asked to place users at risk has the strongest claim that professional obligations prevent compliance,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “This is like asking a doctor to administer a lethal drug.”
“If — and this is a big if — every engineer at Apple who could write the code quit and, also a big if, Apple could demonstrate that this happened to the court’s satisfaction, then Apple could not comply and would not have to,” said Joseph DeMarco, a former federal prosecutor. “It would be like asking my lawn guy to write the code.”
If key Apple employees decide to quit rather than be forced into conscription on behalf of an unconstitutional government, our duty as citizens will be to hail them and support them as the heroes and patriots they are.
I’ve covered this saga in detail previously. Please see:
As the Apple vs. FBI Debate Rages, Congress Plots to Mandate Encryption Backdoors
Apple Vows to Defend Its Customers as the FBI Launches a War on Privacy and Security
Video of the Day – John McAfee Proclaims “An Apple Backdoor is the End of America”
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Q. Tech Civil Disobedience – Will Apple Engineers Refuse to Follow Unethical Government Orders?
A. Give these techies a monetary incentive (salary raise + commissions) and they will surely comply with the government.
The last thing Apple engineers will care about is romanticizing on Thoreau’s
philosophical views.
Aloha Michael…Why has no one mentioned the Fact that the Government and All its Alphabet Agencies..Already HAVE the Information they are Trying to get the Tech Companies to pony up,through Court Actions…? Last time I looked NSA was Harvesting and Sweeping-up ALL Cell conversations and text messages,in the good ole’ US of A..correct..? thanks for reading,aloha