63 Times the Feds Asked Apple and Google to Help Unlock Phones

The idea that the FBI only cared about unlocking just one iPhone in its recently-abandoned legal battle with Apple was always fiction: The American Civil Liberties Union has discovered at least 63 court orders in 22 states in which the federal government invoked the All Writs Act to compel Apple or Google to help it access data on a password-protected phone in a criminal investigation. The cases run the gamut from minor drug charges to child pornography and involve many different agencies within the Department of Justice, including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. In addition, there’s at least one case brought by the Bureau of Land Management, in relation to an alleged marijuana grow operation.

None of the cases are believed to have required Apple or Google to write new software that could have broken the security of other phones, which was a key component of the San Bernardino (CA) case. That the government has asked Apple for assistance in getting into iPhones is no surprise, but seeing the documents gives further clarity on what, specifically, it’s asking for. It’s also the first confirmation that the government has brought an All Writs Act case against Google. “These cases show that the government has an interest in getting this kind of assistance from tech companies in a wide variety of cases,” ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said. “The government and law enforcement in general have an interest in using the All Writs Act in a wide variety of investigations, including criminal investigations.”