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Apple ( AAPL ) isn’t the only tech giant to face government demands to unlock cellphones. Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google reportedly has been ordered to help federal agents open cellphones in seven states. The American Civil Liberties Union found 63 instances stretching back to 2008 where the government sought a court order to help it access data from a locked cellphone, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Apple’s first iPhone was released in mid-2007. Details of the cases came after the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday told a federal judge that it no longer needed to compel Apple to help unlock the password-protected iPhone 5C used by Syed Farook, one of the two now-deceased shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre. The DOJ said the FBI was able to access data on the iPhone with the assistance of an unidentified outside party, without Apple’s help. Apple had argued that a court order forcing it to write software to bypass its own security protections would have set a dangerous precedent. Creating a “back door” for the government’s use would have made all iPhones more vulnerable to hackers, criminals and spies, the company said. Google told the WSJ: “We carefully scrutinize subpoenas and court orders to make sure they meet both the letter and spirit of the law. However, we’ve never received an All Writs Act order like the one Apple recently fought that demands we build new tools that actively compromise our products’ security. … We would strongly object to such an order.” Google is among the many tech companies that have backed Apple in its fight with the FBI. The ACLU, though, says the All Writs Act was used in the Google cases, which involve investigations by the FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security Department, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Land Management, the WSJ said. Prosecutors have sought to use the All Writs Act, a law from the 18 th century, to compel the smartphone makers to allow access to data, unleashing a massive privacy debate. The first cases relying on the All Writs Act date back to 2008. In one of the Google cases, a 2015 drug investigation in California, prosecutors got a court order compelling Google to provide assistance in getting data from an Alcatel and a Kyocera cellphone, that used Google’s Android operating system, the WSJ said, citing court records. The ACLU found Google was also the subject of All Writs Act cases in Alabama, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon and South Dakota, according to the report. A court filing last month from Apple indicated there were about a dozen cases in which the Justice Department was pursuing similar orders involving Apple iPhones. Google’s Android is an open source operating system that runs on phones manufactured by a number of companies, while Apple’s iOS is used just on its iPhones. Apple stock was up 1% in early afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 109. Alphabet stock was up a fraction, near 771. Scalper1 News
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