"public funds" is not a single shared bucket of loot that everyone puts into. In this case it was a county owned device.
County governments are typically recognized incorporated organizations that have no real line of authority or connection with the federal government.
So no, the FBI or federal doesn't have some ownership claim that makes it ok to break into. As others point out they have basically seized the device from its owner in the course of investigation.
can you explain the comment on relevance a bit more? You said it twice but I'm not seeing your point.
Regarding the Director's double speak I think it is relevant. The FBI or federal government is still not the owner. Regardless of whether the device was seized or surrendered the property is still owned by the county.
> What he's saying is "we want it both ways". We don't want to take away security for users, we just want to make it easier for someone who's not the owner of the phone to get into it.
If they have permission from the owner, it's wrong to describe it as trying to get into "someone else's phone". There's no expectation of privacy in a government owned phone.
Who decides paying $1M to get access to a government owned device is appropriate use of public money though?
Why didn't they go through proper channels? Why did they reset the iCloud passwords? What steps have they taken to prevent this from happening in the future?
The FBI is doing a lot of hand waving and there is no accountability. Where are all those fiscal conservatives when we need them?
The phone is evidence in a police investigation, they didn't buy it, while its owners are dead surely it belongs to their hiers? or does that whole rule of law thing mean nothing
The phone was a work phone issued by the San Bernardino Health Department, so no - the heirs of the killers didn't assume ownership of the phone. It was always the property of the San Bernardino Health Department.