Professor Joh Comments for The Recorder on Apple v. FBI
Professor Elizabeth Joh commented for The Recorder on Apple v. FBI, the legal conflict over whether the government can compel Apple to help law enforcement access information stored in an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two people involved in the mass shooting in San Bernardino in December 2016.
Professor Joh said that as each side has attempted to win support in the court of public opinion, metaphors have been used to simplify complex technological issues, such as suggestions that the government is asking Apple to create a "master key" to open the phone. Professor Joh said such simplifications may be dangerous.
"Is this really like a one-time-only key to a physically locked door? Or is it like the government forcing an innocent third party to create something against its will?" Joh said. "My concern is that an analogy, once adopted, could be dangerous if it is inaccurate in describing the technology at issue."
Professor Joh's scholarship focuses on criminal procedure and policing, with a special emphasis on DNA evidence, undercover policing, and new surveillance technologies.