[mysterypie]

> I would bet that the engineers described what would need to happen. ... The FBI took that "solution" and ran with what they described.

I think you absolutely nailed it!

For a high-profile investigation like this, Apple would have given the FBI access to the key developers in the security group. The developers are smart guys trying to be helpful. They are not thinking about Apple policy, or constitutional law, or the big picture of world liberty and privacy. They are tasked with finding the solution to a technical problem: How to get access to protected data.

What likely happened--exactly as you already suggested--is that the FBI asked the developers to explain how the security system could have been designed so as to permit easy government access in cases like this. The FBI was asking "hypothetically" of course. The developers happily gave a blueprint of how the system could have been designed.

The FBI now demands that blueprint be implemented.

Apple should have talked to the FBI through lawyers only.

[frandroid]

> For a high-profile investigation like this, Apple would have given the FBI access to the key developers in the security group. > Apple should have talked to the FBI through lawyers only.

You went from "would have" to "should have", turning your hypothesis into a certainty...

[justinclift]

Hopefully they will be talking to the FBI through lawyers only from now on. :)

[afarrell]

Why wouldn't the developers in the security group think about constitutional law? Have you ever seen an internet forum that talked about computer security regularly, yet did not talk about constitutional law regularly? If not, how would those developers have possibly avoided regular reminders about the 4th amendment?

[jeffmould]

They didn't have to avoid any reminders. They were most likely just asked "how" it could be done, not to do it. The law comes into effect now, where the FBI is trying to get the courts to order them to comply. Simply telling someone how to potentially do something illegal is not illegal itself, and really doesn't cross any boundaries in my opinion. A white hat hacker uses many of the same techniques that a black hat hacker uses, but in one instance it is legal and in the other it is illegal.