On February 16, a US District Court in California, responding to an FBI request, ordered Apple to write an entirely new operating system for its iPhone, one that would give Federal authorities full access to encrypted private information on those phones. Protesters in the Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Palo Alto organized demonstrations saying the FBI demand would set a dangerous precedent and threaten the safety and security of millions of iPhone users worldwide.

Elsewhere in the US, demonstrators in more than 40 cities across the US rallied in front of Apple stores to protest the Department of Justice demand that Apple help hack an iPhone used by one of the San Bernadino shooters. One of the major rallies held on the February 23 national day of action was in front of FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has said it will be filing an amicus brief in support of Apple with the courts. Shahid Buttar of EFF wrote: "The FBI’s demands reflect a familiar pattern of security agencies leveraging the most seemingly compelling situations—usually the aftermath of terror attacks—to create powers that are later used more widely and eventually abused. The government programs monitoring the telephone system and Internet, for example, were created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Those programs came to undermine the rights of billions of people, doing more damage to our security than the tragic events that prompted their creation."

Photos: 1 | 2 | don'tbreakourphones.org | Electronic Frontier Foundation