Bill Gates Plays The Fence In Apple Versus FBI Case
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Microsoft founder Bill Gates has launched himself into the highly controversial case between Apple and the FBI.
Unlike other high-tech heavyweights that have sided with Apple, Gates says the case is not so black and white. He says congress and the courts must help strike an appropriate balance between security and privacy.
At first, due to an interview with The Financial Times, many spectators were led to believe that Gates was siding with the FBI.
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"This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information," Mr. Gates told the newspaper. "They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case."
Unhappy with the way his words were interpreted, under a headline that read "Bill Gates backs FBI Hack request", Gates further explained his position in another interview with Bloomberg News.
"I do believe that with the right safeguards there are cases where the government, on our behalf, like stopping terrorism which could get worse in the future, that that is valuable," he said. "But striking that balance — clearly the government's taken information historically and used it in ways that we didn't expect going all the way back, say, to the F.B.I. under J. Edgar Hoover."
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On the other hand, according to CNN, Gates said it's important not to get too caught up in the emotions following a terrorist attack. Similarly, he said that people shouldn't act to quickly after revelations of government abuse, such as when Edward Snowden revealed the scope of the NSA's bulk collection.
In the end Gates says the case's outcome is inevitable.
"All Apple's doing is delaying the decision," Gates told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "So I don't think it's a big deal whether they gave in or didn't give in."
