Washington (AFP)

A furious tweet from the American president, and here is the giant Apple and Donald Trump launched in a new quarrel on the question of access to encrypted data from smartphones to apple in criminal investigations.

The American president directly attacked Tuesday on Twitter the manufacturer of the iPhone.

"We help Apple all the time on the TRADE issue and many other problems and yet they refuse to unlock the phones used by killers, dealers or other violent criminal elements", plague Donald Trump, summing up the business of "helping our great country. NOW."

At the origin of this dispute, the attack in December of the naval air base of Pensacola, in Florida.

Three sailors had been killed by a Saudi aviator in training "motivated by jihadist ideology," according to US Justice Minister Bill Barr.

The American government has since demanded from the Californian giant access to the shooter's two iPhones which the investigators cannot unlock.

And according to Bill Barr, Apple "did not provide significant assistance" to the police in this endeavor.

An accusation swept aside by Apple, which remains firmly opposed to any legal obligation to unlock the smartphones of its users, including in the context of a criminal investigation.

"Our responses to their numerous requests since the attack have been timely, complete and are still in progress," the apple brand said in a statement.

- Security vs privacy -

This spat revives the thorny debate on data encryption, between supporters of absolute protection of private property and those who see it as an obstacle in criminal investigations.

A similar battle had already taken place in 2015 between Apple and the Ministry of Justice after the killing of San Bernardino (California) which left 14 dead.

Apple had refused to help the police access the encrypted content of the phone of one of the attackers.

The standoff ended in 2016, when the government reportedly spent $ 1 million for a third-party company to develop a tool capable of bypassing encryption.

The debate is not just about Apple. Last year, the American, British and Australian governments notably asked Facebook not to encrypt all of its platforms without guaranteeing access to the police in the event of serious crimes. A request refused by the social network.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg then recalled that protecting the confidentiality of messages on messaging makes it possible to protect journalists in countries without press freedom, protesters in Hong Kong and dissidents in general.

Same story with Apple who believes that there is no reason to give a "backdoor" (backdoor in a program to recover data, editor's note) "just for the good guys".

"Backdoors can be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the security of our users' data," argues Apple.

According to Jennifer Granick, of the American Union for Civil Liberties, the demands of the government "are dangerous, unconstitutional and could weaken the security of millions of iPhones".

"Strong encryption allows minorities who have been victims of a genocide like the Uighurs in China or journalists investigating the powerful Mexican cartels to communicate in a secure manner," she added.

And the activist to drive home the point by believing that if Apple lets the FBI access this kind of data, it will not be able to prevent "authoritarian foreign governments" from doing the same.

A position not shared by James Lewis, cybersecurity expert from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who believes that it is possible to give access to the authorities without completely sacrificing the sacrosanct encryption.

It proposes in particular an encryption of the data which is not "end to end" that is to say that it would allow a third party to be able to have access to it, "under the supervision of the appropriate authority".

According to him, this new Apple-government battle should however end as in 2015, with a third-party company capable of unlocking the phone of the Pensacola base attacker.

"This is the remake of the film we saw for San Bernardino. But it will be harder because Apple had to repair the flaw that had worked in this case," he concludes.

© 2020 AFP