The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) files a lawsuit against the FBI and asked the court to force the federal agency to reveal information on its iPhone unlocking expertise.
The ACLU filed a case against the FBI to compel the federal agency to divulge more information about its ability to breach the encryption of various types of smartphones, including Apple's iconic iPhone. The civil rights group filed the case on Tuesday and specifically asked the court to force the FBI to reveal more information about its Electronic Device Analysis Unit. ACLU believes that the FBI has been using the EDAU to break quietly into iPhones and dozens of other devices. The ACLU made it clear that it wanted to know more about the iPhone unlocking expertise of the FBI to protect the rights of the smartphone owners.
"The FBI is quietly breaking digital encryption that keeps our laptops and mobile phones safe and secure from identity hackers, thieves, and abusive governments, and it declines to even acknowledge that it has information about such efforts," the ACLU stated in its announcement. The civil rights group filed its case under the Freedom of Information Act in a court in San Francisco. It also cited several cases where prosecutors submitted applications for a "Mobile Device Unlock Request" and also received data from supposedly locked devices. If the court hands ACLU a favorable decision, it would allow the civil rights group to examine and know more about the iPhone unlocking capabilities of the FBI.
ACLU sues for information about FBI iPhone unlocking capabilities https://t.co/caQ7ybrDOa — The Blogger (@TheBlogger_in) December 23, 2020
Publicly available information shows that the EDAU submitted requests in the past to purchase tools like the GrayKey, a type of software that allows anyone to pierce the strong encryption on iPhones. The ACLU also pointed out that the EDAU tried to secure the services of an electronics engineer whose responsibilities include "forensic extractions and advanced data recovery on locked and damaged devices." These are among the reasons why the ACLU is asking the court to compel the FBI to disclose more information about its iPhone unlocking capabilities.
The FBI, for its part, has made a couple of public acknowledgments of the EDAU. Since that time, the ACLU has sought more information about the iPhone unlocking capabilities of the FBI. In June 2018, for instance, the civil rights group submitted requests for records that relate to the forensics division. The FBI, however, refused to confirm the existence of any such record. After a series of appeals under the FOIA, the ACLU brought its case to the federal court and demanded that the attorney general and FBI inspector general should make the EDAU records available.
"We're demanding the government release records concerning any policies applicable to the EDAU, its technological capabilities to unlock or access electronic devices, and its requests for, purchases of, or uses of software that could enable it to bypass encryption," the ACLU stated in its lawsuit seeking to compel the FBI to disclose more information about its iPhone unlocking capabilities. Industry observers say the case is of particular interest to iPhone owners since Apple has been claiming its encryption is among the strongest on the market today. The Cupertino-based tech giant has also declined to comply with government requests to incorporate backdoors into its platforms for investigators.
