Paul Viollis: Apple's Outsized Ego
For a man with a superior IQ, oversight of a corporate balance sheet with over $200 billion in cash/investments and a business mind that will be marveled by tech aficionados for years to come, to think he is standing on the right side of this argument is nonsensical.
Let’s break this down.
The government is seeking access to one phone as part of an ongoing terrorist investigation which took the lives of 14 Americans on our own soil and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook is refusing to cooperate because it will, according to his February 16th letter to customers, create a bad precedent by comprising encryption and ultimately privacy.
Really? Are you kidding me? At what point do we draw the line in the sand and say that corporate America has an obligation to the safety and security of the American public and it supersedes the desires of corporate leaders to pad their balance sheets. Make no mistake about it. This is not about Apple’s inability to create a myopically focused back door to this very device especially given the fact it employs some of the greatest mathematical minds in the world. What this is about is the need to garner evidence, expeditiously, to ascertain who the two terrorists were communicating with so as to crystalize coconspirators on the San Bernardino attack, as well as other similar occurrences currently in the planning stages.
That said, the only thing that is preventing Apple from complying is the monster-sized ego of one man who wants the world to think he is just a good guy looking out for the common good and the privacy of his customers. I wonder if he will bring that speech to the pulpit after the next attack especially if we were to verify it could have been prevented, had he cooperated.
Heck of a fight to pick particularly since that might be construed as obstruction of justice by the government if that scenario were to come to fruition.