Lawmaker Fires Back at Apple CEO's '60 Minutes' Comments About Data Encryption

Apple CEO Tim Cook “omitted critical facts” about data encryption (see 1512100032) when he said during his 60 Minutes interview broadcast Sunday that the company doesn't have to answer government warrants regarding encrypted communication, said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. Cook claimed that Apple "does not comply with lawful subpoenas because it cannot," said Cotton in a statement Monday. "While it may be true that Apple doesn't have access to encrypted data, that's only because it designed its messaging service that way." In the interview, Cook said, according to a CBS transcript, that "if the government lays a proper warrant on us today then we will give the specific information that is requested. Because we have to by law. In the case of encrypted communication, we don't have it to give. And so if like your iMessages are encrypted, we don't have access to those." By providing a back door to an encrypted device "that back door's for everybody, for good guys and bad guys," Cook said. But Cotton said, "As a society, we don't allow phone companies to design their systems to avoid lawful, court-ordered searches. If we apply a different legal standard to companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook, we can expect them to become the preferred messaging services of child pornographers, drug traffickers, and terrorists alike -- which neither these companies nor law enforcement want."