Tech leaders and U.S. lawmakers must come to a long-term solution on how to protect individual privacy and national security simultaneously, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said.
In a letter posted Monday on LinkedIn, McAdam said he wanted to give Verizon’s perspective on the debate, which centers on the dispute between Apple and the FBI. The largest U.S. wireless carrier favors encrypted communication to assure privacy and opposes giving the government tools to access information.
“There may be legitimate reasons for preventing the destruction of data, such as the investigation of terrorism and serious crimes,” he wrote. “These conditions must be strictly defined by law, not arrived at haphazardly on an ad hoc or case-by-case basis, as in the Apple case.”
Apple is expected to tell the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that giving the government tools to unlock phones would “weaken the security” of its products.
