Apple can beat the FBI, but it may not be able to beat European countries

Bloomberg wrote today that although Apple’s main battle over encryption and privacy issues is currently with the US FBI, the company may actually face a more severe environment in Europe.

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In the process of "Apple challenging the FBI", the company believes that it is Congress, not the courts, that has the real power to set encryption policies. This position is not without risks, as the US Congress may not stand on Apple's side. At the same time, foreign lawmakers may continue to threaten Apple. Recent actions in Europe and South America show that the multinational technology company may face different policy threats. How can they comply with different policy laws in different countries? You know, these laws may even conflict with each other sometimes.

Rob Knake, who served as the White House cybersecurity director from 2011 to 2015, said conflict is inevitable. He believes the toughest policy issues will come from countries with similar cultural and political environments to the United States.

In Europe, law enforcement agencies generally rely on cooperation from the private sector to obtain investigative data. Given the urgent counter-terrorism situation facing Western Europe recently, it may be difficult for technology companies to resist. "Can they really resist pressure from other democratic countries?" asked Necker.

Apple may soon face a test. On Tuesday, French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to advance a plan that would punish tech companies that do not allow them to access encrypted data. Under the proposal, tech executives who violate the rules could face fines or jail time. But the bill still has to go through several stages before it becomes law. If passed, however, the position of companies like Apple will be challenged. They can develop devices and services that can technically comply with government data requests, but Apple is unlikely to do so. They may withdraw from the French market outright, or they may continue to operate there and wait for a conflict with local law enforcement.

Other countries have also clashed over encryption. Britain is considering changes to its surveillance legislation. The new bill was criticized when it was proposed late last year for not clarifying whether foreign companies would be asked to provide access to encrypted information. Jens-Henrik Jeppesen, European director at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said a recent redraft of the bill did not improve that. “It’s not clear what information the government wants,” he said. “They’ve clearly left themselves room to say to telecoms operators: ‘You have to suspend this service because we’re not getting what we want.’ ”

Brazilian police recently detained a local Facebook executive for not providing information related to a drug smuggling investigation. Brazilian police also searched the home of a Microsoft executive last year because the executive refused to provide Skype data stored in the United States. Microsoft said at the time that handing over the data to Brazil would violate U.S. surveillance laws. In other words, the company must have violated the laws of a country.

Necker believes that because each country has different policies on data security, privacy and encryption, it is almost impossible for multinational technology companies to comply with all local laws at the same time. Microsoft faces a similar question as to whether it should submit emails stored in Iranian data centers to the FBI. The US government said that Microsoft should comply with the law and submit these emails. However, the company believes that if it meets this requirement, it will need to provide information stored in the United States to other governments at their request in the future.

If the U.S. Congress does pass new legislation on encryption, the tech industry is likely to put enormous pressure on it. But Jeppesen said Silicon Valley lobbying would play a much smaller role in Europe, where U.S. tech companies have been criticized for unfair competition, tax evasion and undermining the value of local media.

In addition, European governments do not believe that Silicon Valley can guarantee that private information will not fall into the hands of the US government, which further strengthens their distrust of US technology companies. David Fidler, a senior researcher at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, said that although Apple's main target of struggle is the FBI, the international situation it faces is more complicated. "Do you think this is a problem?" he said, "Let's wait for the other shoe to drop." (Shu Yu)

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.