New York's top prosecutor says that Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) encryption is hindering criminal investigations everywhere.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance wrote in prepared testimony set to be delivered at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, and said iPhone encryption "cripples even the most basic steps of a criminal investigation," and it also prevents law enforcement from exonerating innocent people suspected of crimes.
Vance said his office has been frustrated in prosecuting three attempted murder suspects, people accused of sexually abusing a child, child pornographers, people charged with assault, robbers, and identity thieves among others.
Since Apple began encrypting iPhones by default in September 2014, Vance said his office has been locked out of 175 iPhones, or one quarter of the 670 Apple devices that his office's Cyber Lab obtained from suspects. In each of those cases, his office had a valid search warrant to obtain the information on the suspects' phones.
Vance said that he personally values his privacy and is a fan of encryption. He also said that he sympathizes with those who see daily headlines about massive security breaches. He acknowledged that people are wary about data collection following revelations by Edward Snowden that the government has been collecting information about citizens in bulk.
The primary issue, Vance argues, is whether prosecutors should be allowed access -- with a warrant -- to information that people are now primarily storing on their smartphones. He acknowledges that prosecutors were able to convict criminals before the invention of smartphones, but he said that was during an era of physical storage.
People used to keep secrets in safes, which could be broken into with brute force. Now, people keep secrets in smartphones, which, like San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone, can be set to self-destruct after just 10 wrong passcode guesses.
Apple shares opened Tuesday up $1.06, or 1.1%, from Monday's close at $97.75 U.S., within a 52-week trading range of $92.00 to $134.54 U.S.
