Many of Apple’s engineers would rather quit than assist the FBI

Apple’s leadership stands behind the company’s decision to fight against the government’s demands to break the iPhone’s encryption, and it looks like many of the company’s employees do to. In the event that Apple loses its legal battle with the FBI and is forced to break the iPhone’s encryption, several of the company’s employees have made it clear that they’ll do so begrudgingly, while others would rather leave the company than help undermine the security of the software that they helped create. Only time will tell if these engineers will actually leave their lucrative jobs on principle, but let’s hope that it never comes to that.

If the F.B.I. wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers. Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees. Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the development of mobile products and security, as well as former security engineers and executives. The potential resistance adds a wrinkle to a very public fight between Apple, the world’s most valuable company, and the authorities over access to an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif. It also speaks directly to arguments Apple has made in legal documents that the government’s demand curbs free speech by asking the company to order people to do things that they consider offensive. “Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in the company’s final brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.