California Shooter Iphone

The Justice Department said Thursday that Apple's attempts at linking an ongoing fight over a locked iPhone to broader questions about encryption are "a diversion," pushing back against an argument repeatedly made by the company and its supporters in Silicon Valley.

A ruling by a federal judge that the US government cannot force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone in a New York drug case does not affect the US government's legal action to force Apple to grant access to a phone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, the White House said on Tuesday.

In the chaotic aftermath of the shootings in San Bernardino, California, in December, FBI investigators seeking to recover data from the iPhone of one of the shooters asked a technician in the California county to reset the phone's iCloud password.

The Justice Department calculated that it held a winning hand - the passcode-locked Apple iPhone of a terrorist - when it went to a federal court in Riverside, California.

Edward Snowden and others on Twitter rallied on Wednesday in support of Apple Inc's opposition to a US court order to help federal investigators by unlocking an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December's deadly attack in San Bernardino, California.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has backed Apple in its battle with FBI over opposing a US court's ruling to unlock the iPhone of a Pakistani-American terrorist who shot dead 14 people in California, saying forcing companies to enable hacking could "compromise" user's privacy.

Apple must provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators seeking to unlock the data on Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c.

The Justice Department said Thursday that Apple's attempts at linking an ongoing fight over a locked iPhone to broader questions about encryption are "a diversion," pushing back against an argument repeatedly made by the company and its supporters in Silicon Valley.

A ruling by a federal judge that the US government cannot force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone in a New York drug case does not affect the US government's legal action to force Apple to grant access to a phone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, the White House said on Tuesday.

In the chaotic aftermath of the shootings in San Bernardino, California, in December, FBI investigators seeking to recover data from the iPhone of one of the shooters asked a technician in the California county to reset the phone's iCloud password.

The Justice Department calculated that it held a winning hand - the passcode-locked Apple iPhone of a terrorist - when it went to a federal court in Riverside, California.

Edward Snowden and others on Twitter rallied on Wednesday in support of Apple Inc's opposition to a US court order to help federal investigators by unlocking an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December's deadly attack in San Bernardino, California.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has backed Apple in its battle with FBI over opposing a US court's ruling to unlock the iPhone of a Pakistani-American terrorist who shot dead 14 people in California, saying forcing companies to enable hacking could "compromise" user's privacy.

Apple must provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators seeking to unlock the data on Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c.