<p>The FBI in recent years has heaped pressure on Apple and other phone manufacturers to create a &#8220;back door&#8221; that would allow law enforcement agencies to ;access locked smartphones.</p>
<p>The FBI tried and failed to convince a court that Apple should be forced to break a phone&rsquo;s encryption whenever the government requests access. In its argument, the FBI claimed its agents in 2017 had been locked out of nearly 8,000 smartphones obtained in connection with crimes. ;</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the agency admitted the actual number of locked phones was much smaller &#8211; less than 2,000 &#8211; and blamed a &ldquo;computer glitch&rdquo; for the error.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Call it a lie. Call it a misrepresentation. Call it a convenient error. Call it what you want. Just don&rsquo;t call it a fact,&rdquo; writes <em>Tech Dirt&rsquo;s</em> Tim Cushing. &ldquo;So, we know the FBI can&rsquo;t be trusted to tell the whole story when quizzed about its &#8216;going dark&#8217; assertions. Now, we know the FBI can&rsquo;t be trusted to count physical devices accurately.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The FBI&rsquo;s case against Apple came to a head in 2016 when the agency seized an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, but was unable to access it due to Apple&rsquo;s security settings. ;</p>
<p>The FBI eventually obtained the iPhone&rsquo;s passcode from an unidentified source, but said it would continue ;&ldquo;pursuing a solution that ensures law enforcement can access evidence of criminal activity with appropriate legal authority.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Apple insists that it can&rsquo;t ;create a &ldquo;back door&rdquo; for law enforcement without also creating an entryway for hackers. ;</p>
<p>The FBI&rsquo;s recent discovery was likely prompted by FOIA requests and demands for answers from Congress. Without this pressure, the FBI would have had no reason to double check its record keeping. &ldquo;Now that it must answer to both Congressional oversight and tenacious members of the public, it has finally decided to audit its locked phone stash,&rdquo; continues Cushing.</p>
<p><strong>Author&#8217;s Note:</strong> This is one of those situations where we must ask ourselves whether public safety policy ;trumps personal privacy. In most cases, I would argue that it does not. ;</p>
<p>When consumers purchase a phone, they trust the manufacturer to keep their personal information private. If Apple gives the feds a way to access any smartphone, that trust goes out the window &#8211; not to mention the hacking risk. ;</p>
<p>As people continue to use smartphones for private purposes ;like banking, investing, shopping, and health monitoring, it is even more important that our phones remain private. ;Apple has already been forced to ;give Beijing the keys to all of its Chinese accounts. We should not allow the same thing to happen in America.</p>