WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The companies, including Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, eBay and Airbnb, warned that granting the US government such extraordinary authority without any set rules or legal protections will erode user privacy and security.
"This extraordinary and unprecedented effort to compel a private company to become the government’s investigative arm not only has no legal basis under the All Writs Act or any other law, but threatens the core principles of privacy, security and transparency that underlie the fabric of the Internet," the legal brief stated on Thursday.
"[It will also] defeat users’ interest in transparency, it will undermine an existing legislative framework balancing competing interests and policy considerations," the legal brief added.
Moreover, the companies noted in the brief that the US government’s demand on Apple is unbound by any legal limits.
Earlier in February, a California court ordered Apple to create software that would allow law enforcement access to an iPhone used by Syed Farook, a suspect in the December 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California that left 14 people dead.
Apple has refused to give in to the US government’s demands. So far, many technology companies, former officials, including former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden, have either sided with Apple or warned that agreeing to the government’s demand would cause major security implications for the United States.
