Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, recently issued a warning that if the FBI wins its case against their company, a surveillance state might emerge.
The tech giant is afraid that the spy agency could force them to secretly implement surveillance technology in the company's tech devices. This warning was issued by the Cupertino, California-based firm, through its senior VP, in an interview recently with Univision, a U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network.
During the extensive interview, the senior VP of the tech giant repeated several arguments voiced out by the company over the past few weeks. Cue made especial mention, however, to the danger of facing a slippery slope that could give birth to more sinister demands if the FBI wins and is allowed to have a backdoor access to consumers iPhone data.
Some in the industry argued that if the FBI wins this case, it will lead to the company giving in to the demands from other government agencies.
This was experienced by Facebook recently. One executive of the social media network was incarcerated in Brazil for not complying with requests from the local police authorities to provide access to messages of drug-traffickers coursed through the company's WhatsApp service.
"When they can get us to create a new system to do new things, where will it stop?" Cue asked.
"For example, one day the FBI may want us to open your phone's camera, microphone. Those are things we can't do now. But if they can force us to do that, I think that's very bad. That should not happen in this country," he emphasized.
The court has scheduled a hearing on Mar. 22 at a Riverside, California federal court regarding this issue. It will determine if the FBI has the right to force Apple to do what the government agency wants.
