DrJBHL

They might not actually be able to.  If it's designed to wipe itself when tampered with, and it's memory doesn't leave retrievable information after it wipes, then there is conceivably no way to unlock it without the four digit key it supposedly requires.  If it can be tampered with safely, then the tamper proof design is flawed.  I'd assume it's flawed, since people aren't perfect, but who knows, maybe they've actually made it tamper proof.

That aside, Fuck the FBI, ATF, NSA, CIA, and any other member of the alphabet soup that wants anyone to give up anything in pursuit of my supposed safety.  I expect to be shot refusing to be disarmed at some point in the next few decades when they repeal the second amendment, zero interest in surrendering what little privacy is left.  Even if I'm just paranoid and I really don't need to worry about it, I'd still be less likely to die to terrorists than I am to medical malpractice, traffic congestion, or even bathing.  Bathtubs, now that's a real danger, we should totally outlaw proper hygiene, if everyone would simply stay away from tubs and showers, we'd save far more people than eradicating terrorism would!

 God protect the rights of the terrorist...

...above ALL ELSE...

including logic and/or common sense/humanity

We defend the rights of all because not to do so will result in the loss of rights for all. 

How much do you trust D.C.? NSA, CIA and all of it. I don't trust them. Those who practice genocide all over the planet.

This is a nice masquerade they got going on. If you go back a couple of years the big names (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook etc) were deep in bed with the triple-lettered agencies. About a year and a bit back, warnings start coming in that the big boys might be losing business to places with better privacy. And now this dance and show. Apple sticking up to the man? Give me a break... carefully choreographed but not plausible. The simplest solution to losing money was always just to lie about it. 

It's not beyond the pale to consider that this is an elaborate charade to persuade us they can't do what they are already doing, but my scalp is really itching under this TFH.

Tim Cook is doing the right thing. And John McAfee is here to help! He will solve this problem or eat his shoe... The agencies can probably do this on their own but they want a legal backdoor. Totalitarian surveillance seems to be high on the wishlist of many politicians.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/john-mcafee-i-ll-decrypt-the-san-bernardino-iphone-or-i-ll-eat-my-shoe-500613.shtml

Quoting Daiwa,

reply 6

Being a mod kinda sorta, to a tiny degree, requires a bit of a small authoritarian streak, so Jafo. 

Jafo's here like everyone else 99% mostly...not as a Mod/Admin. [I also sell bridges in Brooklyn].

To be sure, if things start getting out of hand, the expected will happen: So, good to keep that in mind. Remember, Jafo collects scalps.

Jafo also has an Aussie view point which I respect, and agree with all, most some of the time. I too have a large dislike for terrorists of any stripe, but a far healthier respect for our Constitution.

My point, exactly.

Actually, being in custody does not negate the person's Constitutional protections. A Search Warrant would still have to be obtained or the evidence would be inadmissible.

If convicted? How'd they manage that without legally obtained evidence?

Member nations of the Commonwealth have the Magna Carta going for them, but not the specific rights enumerated in our Bill of Rights.  So the relationship between subject and crown is a little different from the relationship between citizen and state.

'Course, you knew that.

Evil is cunning. Evil is also patient: it knows very well that most people would not accept a radical change overnight. That most people are good and would rebel if evil was suddenly imposed on them. It also knows that people are like frogs in slow boiling water - because the change in temperature is oh-so-gradual the frog will eventually let itself be boiled to death.

The heart slowly hardens as it is exposed to more and more misery. What would make people jump into action a few years ago, now barely makes them bat an eyelid.

So what does evil do? First it disguises its true motivation with what, on the surface, appears to be good intentions. It shows us the smaller picture hoping people will not be able to see the Truth, which can only be seen by looking at the much bigger picture, i.e.; at ALL the consequences of a particular change. Society adapts to the ever more permissive laws, but it never stops to take balance. It never pauses to look at the big picture (are things better or actually worse than they were before? And, if worse, why?) - it keeps blindly going forward.

Oh society does notice that the nuclear family is slowly being destroyed, that respect for life and freedom is slowly being eroded, that loyalty and honesty and keeping your word are now a rarity instead of a common trait. We more and more see young kids shooting other kids in schools, something that never happened before, and we look for answers in all the wrong places.

We don't want to face the truth because facing the truth would make us feel uncomfortable.

We expect our politicians to lie. We know well before-hand that they will get in bed with the powerful economic groups once in power, instead of defending who they were elected to defend. And we now accept all this as a 'fact of life'.

And in we so doing is where evil wins.

We think of all these as isolated situations. But they are not, because all these changes serve a common goal.

Totalitarianism is already here. Or rather, all the tools are already in place: CCTV everywhere (in the name of security, of course), the means to track down every individual's movements (GPS tracking on every cell phone) and thoughts (what he browses on the Internet, what emails he sends, what information about himself he willingly puts on Facebook, what documents he has on his Windows 10 computer, etc..).

One day someone somewhere will press that button. And when that happens we will wake up from our stupor - but it will be too late. Hell on earth.

Sorry, just philosophizing a bit... I'm sure the above is nothing but tin foil hats and conspiracy theories.

My point is, getting a warrant when you're in custody for the crime should be easier.  In other words, it's not an unreasonable search.  It appears as if proper procedures were followed to get the order.

Ben Franklin would tend to disagree, I'd think, but he's unavailable for comment.

There is no 'third option' that both guarantees individual liberties and prevents bad actors from being bad.

Scenario 1: Favoring sustaining individual rights has consequences.

Scenario 2: Favoring compromising individual rights in the name of safety* has consequences.

Either choice will necessarily involve unknown (and unknowable) potential consequences, but scenario two tempts with the false implication that 'knowing' who will win or lose is possible.

Given a choice between only those two scenarios, our Founders bet on sustaining individual rights as the choice more likely to benefit the greatest number to the greatest degree.  I still think they made the right bet.  But I'm open to changing my mind if someone can come up with that elusive third option, and make it operable in the real world.

*Safety is a vague and relative term, subject to all forms of preference and interpretation.