Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Weighs in on Encryption Debate
Woz shared his insight in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" interview.
— -- One of Apple's first coders, co-founder Steve Wozniak, is sharing his perspective on why creating a so-called backdoor to unlock iPhones is a bad idea.
"Twice in my life I wrote things that could have been viruses. I threw away every bit of source code. I just got a chill inside," Wozniak said in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" interview on Wednesday. "These are dangerous, dangerous things, and if some code gets written in an Apple product that lets people in, bad people are going to find their way to it, very likely."
On "Conan" earlier this month, Wozniak also shared his support for Apple in the ongoing encryption battle against federal law enforcement authorities.
"Once you create it, there's a good chance hackers will get into it," he said.
The FBI has called on Apple to help get into the locked iPhone of Syed Farook, who, along with wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 and injured 22 at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, in December. Last month, at the request of the Justice Department, a federal judge ordered Apple to assist law enforcement.
Apple responded last month with a motion to vacate the federal court order, writing that "rather than pursue new legislation, the government backed away from Congress and turned to the courts, a forum ill-suited to address the myriad competing interests, potential ramifications, and unintended consequences presented by the government’s unprecedented demand."
Apple's motion goes on to say that by invoking "terrorism," the government "sought to cut off debate and circumvent thoughtful analysis."
Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly warned the government's request could undermine the privacy of millions of people.
"I think safety of the public is incredibly important -- safety of our kids, safety of our family is very important," Cook said in an interview with ABC News last month. "The protection of people's data is incredibly important, and so the trade-off here is we know that doing this could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities."
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