Bill Gates backs FBI iPhone hack request

Breaking ranks with others in Silicon Valley, Bill Gates told the Financial Times companies should be forced to cooperate with law enforcement in terrorism investigations.

Many technology leaders have sided with Apple in its fight against the FBI's request to break open the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing. They are asking for a particular case,” Gates told the Financial Times.

“It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records. Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said, ‘Don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times.'"

Apple has refused a judge's order to unlock the iPhone on the grounds it would set a “dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties."

Read more from the Financial Times.