POOL

Washington - 1 March 2016

1. Wide of hearing

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel Apple, Inc.:

"The FBI has asked a Court to order us to give them something we don't have. To create an operating system that does not exist — because it would be too dangerous. They are asking for a backdoor into the iPhone — specifically to build a software tool that can break the encryption system which protects personal information on every iPhone. As we have told them — and as we have told the American public — building that software tool would not affect just one iPhone. It would weaken the security for all of them. In fact, just last week Director Comey agreed that the FBI would likely use this precedent in other cases involving other phones."

3. Cutaway during hearing

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel Apple, Inc.:

"The FBI is asking Apple to weaken the security of our products. Hackers and cyber criminals could use this to wreak havoc on our privacy and personal safety. It would set a dangerous precedent for government intrusion on the privacy and safety of its citizens. Hundreds of millions of law-abiding people trust Apple's products with the most intimate details of their daily lives – photos, private conversations, health data, financial accounts, and information about the user's location as well as the location of their friends and families."

5. Wide of hearing

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Landau, Professor:

"What we're going to do is decrease our security. That's the security risk that's coming from this request. I get that law enforcement wants data protection that allows them access under legal authorization but an NSA colleague once remarked to me that while his agency had the right to break into certain systems, no one ever guaranteed that that right would be easy to do so. The problem is, when you build a way in, for someone who isn't the owner to get at the data, well you've built a way in for somebody else to get in as well."

7. Cut to Congressmen

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Landau, Professor:

"Now the FBI already has some excellent people and expertise, but FBI investment capacities is not at the scale and level necessary. Rather than asking industry to weaken protections, law enforcement must instead develop the capabilities for conducting sophisticated investigations themselves."

9. Cut during hearing

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Cyrus R. Vance Jr., District Attorney:

"We believe this line being drawn between public safety and privacy is extremely important. It's affecting our lives, it's affecting our constituents' lives and we believe that you should be drawing it and we ask you to address this problem quickly."

11. Pan of hearing

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell says Apple has no sympathy for terrorists and the "utmost respect" for law enforcement and their work.

But he says the FBI, in seeking access to a phone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, is asking a judge to "give them something we don't have" and to create an operating system that does not exist.

He maintained that the government is "asking for a backdoor" that would allow the FBI to break into every iPhone and weaken security for all of them.

The hearing comes amid two significant and conflicting court rulings in New York and California on whether Apple can be forced to help the FBI gain access to locked phones.

Sewell says the U.S. government has spent millions on supporting strong encryption used by activists and journalists, many in countries with fewer free-speech rights.