Terrorists surrender their privacy rights

TWO evolving issues come together in the row between Apple and the FBI. The FBI has secured a court order directing Apple to unlock an iPhone used by terrorists who killed 14 people in the December attack in California.

Apple has appealed that decision. The conflict is obvious: Do an individual’s privacy rights trump a society’s right to defend itself? Can absolute privacy rights offer shelter or opportunity to criminals or terrorists?

There are subsidiary issues, too. How can a private company, theoretically, access all communications made on devices it manufactures, but a state security agency cannot? Why should one entity be trusted and the other not?