San Bernardino Survivor’s Spouse Backs Apple in iPhone Fight

Apple’s “fight is for something much bigger than one phone,” says the husband of a woman shot in San Bernardino

Supporters Rally At Apple Stores Against Government Interference Into iPhones
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The family of a survivor of December’s deadly San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack is putting its support behind Apple, as the gadget giant fights off an order to help the FBI unlock a phone linked to the shooters.

Salihin Kondoker, whose wife, Anies, was shot three times but survived, told the federal judge in the case that he doubts the iPhone contains any details of value and that he shares Apple’s fear that the case puts the privacy of millions of consumers at risk, in a letter published by BuzzFeed News.

“When I first learned Apple was opposing the order I was frustrated that it would be yet another roadblock,” he wrote in a friend-of-the-court filing in the case. “But as I read more about their case, I have come to understand their fight is for something much bigger than one phone.

“Neither I, nor my wife, want to raise our children in a world where privacy is the tradeoff for security,” he said.

He also argued his doubts that the device at the center of the case would likely hold any information of value. The gadget was issued to shooter Syed Farook by his employer, San Bernardino County, similar to the work phone that Kondoker said his wife also had. It was “common knowledge” that the country could track any communication on the devices.

“Why then would someone store vital contacts related to an attack on a phone they knew the county had access to? They destroyed their personal phones after the attack. And I believe they did that for a reason,” he said.

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