Box CEO Aaron Levie spoke to TechCrunch about the ongoing saga between Apple and the FBI.
“Apple’s response to the government is something we completely wholeheartedly agree with,” said the CEO of the cloud storage company. “The world is going to get more complex, so you can’t create weaknesses in software that then will become vulnerabilities in the future.”
If Apple were to comply with the FBI requests and create security loopholes in its phones, “it would create a level of distrust in technology providers,” Levie added. He thinks that the current situation could set a precedent for other countries. “This has massive implications to how other governments” will view technology privacy.
Levie is not the first tech entrepreneur to weigh in on the topic. TechCrunch spoke to Mark Cuban, who applauded Apple for standing up to the FBI, yet called for a new law that would allow the FBI to hack the phones of deceased terrorists.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also spoke out in defense of Apple.
We stand with @tim_cook and Apple (and thank him for his leadership)! https://t.co/XrnGC9seZ4
— jack (@jack) February 18, 2016
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1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
Most technology CEOs praised Apple’s response, but presidential candidate Donald Trump took the side of the government.
“This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake,” wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook in a public letter.
In the latest development, the Justice Department has filed a motion that could force Apple to comply with the FBI request.
Ultimately, “I am optimistic that we land on the right side, that the government will back down,” said Levie.
