Privacy advocates are showing their support for Apple CEO Tim Cook's decision to resist FBI demands, which would require the company to create software that would bypass iPhone encryption.
The bureau requested a court order to access a phone belonging to one of the attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last December. It has asked Apple to create a backdoor, or software that would be able to circumvent passcodes on an iPhone, in order to see the attacker's data.
But privacy experts, along with the CEO of fellow tech giant Google, have sided with Cook, who published an open letter on Wednesday lambasting the "unprecedented" demand, saying it would "undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers" and prove catastrophic in the wrong hands.
The internet security nonprofit Fight For The Future organized a protest on Wednesday, which saw a few dozen advocates gather outside Apple's flagship store in San Francisco. The group is planning dozens of events around the country next Tuesday to fight what Greer warns could become a dangerous precedent.
"This is being falsely framed as a debate between privacy and security," said Fight For The Future campaign director Evan Greer. "The reality is that encryption is security and undermining it is insecurity."
The White House has denied asking Apple for a backdoor. Press secretary Josh Earnest said the Justice Department "is simply asking for something that would have an impact on this one device." But privacy advocates called the FBI's request a patently illegal demand that could give them free reign over the public's data.
Credit: Fight For The Future Dozens of protestors stand in solidarity with Apple outside the company's flagship store in San Francisco.
"They're not just asking Apple to unlock one phone, they're asking them to build software to circumvent their own security," Greer said. "You'd destroy one of the most important security features of the iPhone -- once it's built, it doesn't just go away."
Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, echoed Greer's comments in an interview with PBS' Gwen Ifill and noted that the FBI likely already has the information they'd want to garner from the iPhone in question.
"They chose this case because they want precedent that they can order a company to design a particular feature at their whim," he said, noting no court has ever approved an order this broad.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly backed Cook, writing on Twitter that the FBI's demand could compromise users' privacy, adding that it could set "a troubling precedent."
"We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders," Pichai said. "But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices [and] data."
The FBI has said it has been unable to unlock the device, an iPhone 5c, in the months following the attack.
Apple has complied with government requests before, and The Daily Beast notes the tech giant has aided authorities at least 70 times since 2008. But the company increased encryption safeguards beginning with its iOS 8 and later versions, saying at the time it wouldn't be able to comply with requests to pull data any longer.
Greer warned that if Apple were to comply with such a demand, a precedent would be established that could put people in danger -- especially those in marginalized communities.
"This is actually about people's safety," she said. "Secure phones keep people safe. Breaking those phones puts people in danger."
Also on HuffPost:
Jaw-Dropping Apple Stores Around The World
Fifth Avenue, New York City
From the outside, this Apple Store, located in Manhattan's GM Plaza, looks like a giant glass cube. Inside, a spiral staircase takes customers to an underground store. It opened in 2006.
Fifth Avenue, New York City
From the outside, this Apple Store, located in Manhattan's GM Plaza, looks like a giant glass cube. Inside, a spiral staircase takes customers to an underground store. It opened in 2006.
Seth Wenig/AP Photo
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Regent Street, London, England
This location opened in 2004 in an Edwardian Period building that once housed the Thomas Cook Travel Agency. The bright lights inside the store offer a warm contrast to the dreary, grey English weather outside. In 2015, the store temporarily closed to undergo renovations that would let in more natural light from outside.
Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
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Grand Central Terminal, New York City
The Apple Store inside Grand Central opened in 2011. It is situated on the terminal's east and northeast balconies, which overlook the bustling main concourse of the station.
Mario Tama via Getty Images
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West Lake, Hangzhou, China
This location opened its doors in 2015. At the time, it was the largest Apple Store in Asia. It's located on West Lake, or Xihu, a historic body of water that has inspired artists for centuries. Apple's minimalist store here boasts ceilings almost 50 feet high and has no visible support columns. The vertical panels in its glass façade reach from the ground to the ceiling with no interruptions, and the interior's second level appears to float freely over the ground floor.
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International Financial Center, Shanghai, China
This store, which opened in 2010, features the now-iconic glass cylindrical structure for which Apple won a patent in 2013. The cylinder houses a glass spiral staircase leading down to the retail floor and is meant to create an "ethereal feeling."
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
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Central district, Hong Kong
Hong Kong's first Apple Store opened its doors in 2011. The space connects two wings of the International Financial Center shopping mall and features a glass spiral staircase. There's even an area designed specially for kids.
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Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
When it opened in 2009, this was France's first Apple Store. Sitting in an underground shopping mall beneath the historic Louvre Museum, its entrance faces the iconic Inverted Pyramid skylight.
Thibault Camus/AP Photo
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Kufurstendamm Avenue, Berlin, Germany
A renovated, century-old theater building houses this store, which opened its doors in 2013. It features a classical Greek revival façade with Ionic columns and tall windows. As an homage to the building's history, the top floors sport red-carpeted stairs, chandeliers and a theater for concerts.
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Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing, China
This store opened in 2012 in Sanlitun, a popular outdoor shopping mall designed to be an urban open space that employs a variety of shapes and textures. The Apple Store has a glass façade that spans three sides of the building, and the company's logo is projected on a block that sits astride the store and another building in the mall.
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Wangfujing district, Beijing, China
This Apple Store opened in 2012. The surrounding area is an outdoor food and night market that has been around for over 800 years. The store boasts Asia's first three-story glass spiral staircase and has two 360-degree Genius Bars, according to The Next Web.
Feng Li/Getty Images
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Upper East Side, New York City
Located in a 1920s beaux-arts building that used to be a bank, this Apple Store opened in 2015. It features an old bank vault that's been remodeled into an Apple Watch Edition fitting room, where VIP shoppers can try on the gold device. Apple also restored the outside of the building to look like it did in the '20s.
Mark Lennihan/AP
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