Apple lawyer to brief senators on FBI iPhone spat

The lawyer that led Apple’s legal team during its recent standoff with the FBI over a locked iPhone will brief senators Wednesday about the case.  

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, organized the off-the-record briefing with the attorney, Ted Olson.

{mosads}Apple in February hired Olson to help it fight an FBI court order directing the tech giant to create software that would disable a security feature and allow investigators access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attacks.  

Apple characterized the software as a dangerous “backdoor” that could allow hackers to access millions of other iPhones. It also maintained that complying would set a troubling precedent allowing law enforcement to ask other tech companies to undermine their own security.

The FBI countered that its request was narrowly tailored to one phone and that it was not trying to expand its powers.

The two tussled in various legal filings, but the government eventually dropped its case after it discovered an alternative method of hacking the phone without Apple’s assistance.

Still, the back-and-forth sparked a heated debate on Capitol Hill about whether Congress should pass legislation to force companies like Apple to comply with similar court orders in the future.

Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — the leaders of the Intelligence Committee — recently introduced a bill that would mandate companies provide “technical assistance” to government investigators seeking secure data.

While law enforcement has long pressed Congress for such a bill, the technology community and privacy advocates caution that guaranteeing access to secure data will undermine security and endanger online privacy.

“While the litigation involving Apple and the federal government in the San Bernardino case has been resolved, many legal and policy questions remain unanswered,” a release from Hatch said.

“In this interactive session, Mr. Olson will discuss the constitutional and statutory issues involved in the San Bernardino case, the broad implications of that litigation and related considerations for policymakers.”