We already cognise about San Bernardino and Brooklyn , but concord to court document unsealed on Friday , Apple ’s effectual struggle with the FBI includes a casing in Boston , too .

The Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU was successful in getting the document unsealed after file a motion in court . The ACLU is undertaking a nationwide project to uncover information about All Writs Act countenance being issued “ to essay to conscript Apple or Google to break into personal electronic devices . ” So far they ’ve found more than 60 cases in 20 states , stretching back to 2008 .

The ACLU ’s legal manager , Matthew Segal , aver in a statement :

This is an significant triumph for open court and open government . Vital takings about the security of our personal information should not be litigated behind unsympathetic doors . Yet , since at least 2008 , that is exactly what was happening with the political science ’s elbow grease to force engineering companies to get at their customers ’ equipment . We gather these cases and filed this move because we believe that getting these issues right requires parcel out with them openly .

We file our motion to unseal this face because we conceive that the public ’s rights will not be respected if they are not litigated openly . Now that the authorities has jibe that this case should be unsealed , and now that a court has unseal it , we hope that unwarranted secrecy will not occur in the next causa or in any other pending slip . This was an important first measure . Now that this basic information is publicly usable , we will look closely at the document to determine any potential next steps .

The Boston case

In the Boston case , Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler issued an order under the All Writs Act ( PDF ) ordering Apple to wait on breaking into an iPhone 6 Plus used by an allege gang phallus accused of committing violent crimes in aid of racketeering . The warrant was come out February 1 and decease after 14 days , but it ’s not clear that the FBI ever fulfill the guarantee .

The government ’s initial All Writs Act program in that character ( PDF ) does n’t mention which interpretation of Io the locked gimmick is running . But the iPhone 6 Plus shipped with iOS 8 , so it ’s passably secure to assume it ’s iOS 8 or iOS 9 . The asking manoeuvre out that Apple has complied with search warrants issued under the All Writs Act in the yesteryear , and that “ examine the iOS gadget without Apple ’s aid , if possible at all , would need significant resources and may harm the iOS gadget . ”

The result guild ( PDF ) says that Apple has to provide “ sensible expert assistance , [ consisting ] of , to the extend potential , extracting data from the twist , copying the information from the gadget onto an external heavy drive or other storage medium … and/or allow for the FBI with the suspect Personal Identification Number or Personal Unlock Code so that access can be gained to Target Telephone 1 . ”

But the order of magnitude also elucidate that encrypt data is enough : “ To the extent that data on the twist is cipher , Apple may provide a transcript of the encrypted data to law enforcement but Apple is not required to attempt to decrypt , or otherwise enable police force enforcement ’s effort to access any encrypted data . ”

Apple ’s own documentationdescribing how jurisprudence enforcement can quest its assistance ( PDF ) points out that since iOS 8 and iOS 9 decrypt all the data on the phone by default as soon as you set a passcode , Apple ca n’t help : “ The files to be extract are protected by an encoding key that is tied to the user ’s passcode , which Apple does not own . ”

How is this different?

In the two most public All Writs Act cases , the FBI withdrew its petition in the San Bernardino case , take a third party sold them a putz to break in into an iPhone 5c bleed iOS 9 . In another case in Brooklyn , the authorities still wants Apple ’s aid evoke information from a meth dealer ’s iPhone 5s scat iOS 7 .

In the Brooklyn compositor’s case , Apple does have a method to educe the information from the iOS 7 telephone without need the passcode . But Apple is stand anyway on the grounds that the political science does n’t require Apple for this — plenty of third - party security firm could deal the same undertaking — and because Apple ’s attorney finger like these All Writs Act warranty are an overreach that ’s more about setting a sound case law than getting into any single gimmick .