NYC police: Criminals say Apple encryption a 'gift from God'
Apple has marketed its encryption data as an important privacy tool, and the Cupertino, California-based company is currently fighting a federal magistrate's order to help the FBI hack into an iPhone used by a gunman in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
In the California case, Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned that creating software allowing the FBI to unlock the San Bernardino suspect's phone would create a backdoor that would make millions of other phones vulnerable to hackers and criminals.
The company has also resisted on the grounds that, if forced by the courts to "hack our own users," the government could be emboldened to force the company to build surveillance software to intercept all sorts of messages, "access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone's microphone or camera without your knowledge."