Apple’s Privacy Stance Draws Weak-Ass Copycat Peer Responses ⇥ nytimes.com

Nick Wingfield and Mike Isaac, New York Times:

Late on Wednesday, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, said on Twitter that law enforcement demands to hack customer devices and data “could be a troubling precedent.” Not long afterward, Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition formed by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, released a broad statement that did not mention the Apple case or Mr. Cook’s letter but said technology companies should not be required to put “back doors” — the equivalent of a tech entryway — into their products.

Asked about Apple’s opposition to the court order, representatives of Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook declined to comment. A spokesman for Amazon, which is not in the coalition, also declined to comment.

Amazon and Microsoft both have significant government Department of Defence and Department of Justice contracts, so it’s sadly unsurprising that they failed to have Apple’s back here. But the rest of the industry’s response is detestably weak; if it were any more watered-down, Silicon Valley would be a lake right now.

Update: Christopher Soghoian:

It’s easy to forget that months before Apple expanded iOS encryption, DOJ was still arguing warrants weren’t necessary to search phones.

How time flies.