In the article, “The Great Apple Controversy,” the author is addressing the people involved or in support of the
burgeoning related protest movement. This is a group of people who feel that
the government accessing Apple phone data in order to gain an advantage against
terrorist investigations is not right. They feel that if the government does
this, it is a violation of everyone’s privacy. The author embeds sources from
technologyreview.com and abc7chicago.com in order to show the reader the facts
that he is commenting about. He is in complete bewilderment, as he states, “I
truly do not understand what people are so afraid of.” Understandably, device
security is used to protect from theft of property, but the government already
knows your Social Security number, home, related account number, etc. All of
this was present long before the digital age. The author further explains that
the government does not need digital devices to steal money, for they can just
pass a law. After this fact, he comes to the conclusion that people are mainly
concerned with hiding their embarrassing information. The author fires against
the people’s reasoning by saying “I am deeply concerned about a culture that is
apparently very actively involved in doing things they do not want anyone else
to know about, yet making records of it.”
I agree completely with the author.
If the government is justifiably attempting to fight against terrorism by using
the utilities of a company that started in America, there is not dramatic harm
to citizens. Based off of my understanding from reading the article, while
awful acts of terrorism are occurring, people are selfishly and ignorantly more
concerned about their own privacy. I absolutely love how the author pointed out
that the government knows everything about their citizens in regards to money
anyways. He also destroys the people’s reasoning by stating that they should
not make records of their secrets if it is valued of high importance. I could
not agree more. If the government was committing the act in order to restrict
American citizens from their freedoms, then there would be concern, but they
are trying to do something good for the safety of America. Technically, Apple could invade anyone's privacy if they chose to do so. I love how the
author ends off the article by saying, “it makes me concerned not only about
the moral compass of the nation, but its general intelligence.” People need to
start looking at all aspects of the situation before they start protesting and
making accusations.