The Conscription of Apple's Software Engineers

When software engineers at Apple designed the iPhone’s security features, they labored knowing that millions were relying on them to safeguard their privacy. Insofar as their efforts succeeded, they would stymie spying by jealous exes; stop hackers from emptying bank accounts; prevent blackmailers from stealing nude photos; and thwart authoritarian governments from identifying dissidents. On Feb 16, a federal judge ordered Apple to write malware to load onto the dead terrorist’s phone, so that the FBI can keep guessing new codes electronically, forcing entry without causing the device to delete all the data that it contains. Apple CEO Tim Cook aptly summed up the situation: “The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe,” he declared.

A federal judge is effectively ordering these unnamed people to write code that would indisputably harm their company and that would, in their view, harm America. They are being conscripted to take actions that they believe to be immoral, that would breach the trust of millions, and that could harm countless innocents. They have been ordered to do intellectual labor that violates their consciences. That may be commonplace in authoritarian countries, but liberal democracies ought to avoid doing the same out of an aversion to transgressing against core freedoms. The order could set a sweeping precedent if it stands.