More than two dozen Apple supporters gathered at the store in Fashion Valley Tuesday to protest the FBI's demand that the tech giant unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The county-issued iPhone 5C was used by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at an office holiday party in December before they died in a gun battle with police. The government said they had been at least partly inspired by the Islamic State.
The couple physically destroyed two personal phones so completely that the FBI has been unable to recover information from them.
Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ordered Apple last week to assist investigators by creating specialized software that would let the FBI rapidly test random passcode combinations to try to unlock the iPhone and view data stored on it.
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook has said that creating such software is a dangerous precedent that would threaten data security for millions by making essentially a master key that could later be duplicated and used against other phones.
The group Fight for the Future organized "Don't Break Our Phones" protests outside Apple's stories in about 50 cities in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Hong Kong including one at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego's Mission Valley area.
Criminal defense attorney Frank Pabst joined the demonstration.
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"What the government is trying to do is in the guise of fear-mongering and playing on people's fears, especially in a very politically charged year," said Pabst.
Not everyone felt that way, however.
"So until they have everything to need to complete their investigation and it's thorough, if it's out there, give it to them, give them what they want," said resident Anne Hawks.
A Pew Research Center survey found that 51 percent of Americans said Apple should unlock the iPhone, while 38 percent said Apple should not -- and that it should ensure the security of user information. The remainder gave no opinion. The telephone survey was conducted Feb. 18 through Feb. 21 among 1,002 adults using both landline and cell phones.
