After Apple Inc. decided not to comply with a judge's order to unlock an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on Friday compelling Apple to cooperate with the order and even branded the tech giant's refusal as a form of "marketing strategy."
"Apple has attempted to design and market its products to allow technology, rather than the law, to control access to data which has been found by this court to be warranted for an important investigation," the filing states, according to ABC News.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked for Apple's help in accessing an iPhone owned by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the suspects of the San Bernardino shooting. Raising its concerns about the order, the company was able to ask for three days before it will be required to respond to the order, according to Reuters.
In an open letter to its customers, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained that his company's hesitation to comply with the investigation is due to fear that the software for decrypting the iPhone could possibly end up as a "master key" that can unlock all iPhones, thus endangering the privacy of all its customers.
And while the new order from the U.S. Justice Department is "not legally necessary" because the company has not yet responded to the initial order, the DOJ brought down the filing to relay to Apple that it can keep custody of any and all software that will be produced in the process of unlocking the encrypted iPhone.
"The order does not, as Apple's public statement alleges, require Apple to create or provide a 'back door' to every iPhone. It does not provide 'hackers and criminals' access to iPhones; it does not require Apple to 'hack (its) own users' or to 'decrypt' its own phones," said the motion filed in a federal court in California, according to AFP.
The motion did not state anything specific about what possible penalties Apple faces should it not give in to the request.
