February 16 saw Apple publish an open letter , addressed to consumers but also a direct shot to governments around the world:

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. “

This is Day 22 of 30 Days of iPhone, a look at the moments that shaped the smartphone era .

Government Demands Apple Create An iPhone Backdoor

Following the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the U.S. federal court ordered Apple to break the encryption on a suspect’s iPhone, demanding a bespoke version of iOS to be loaded into the smartphone that would allow brute force attacks without any mitigation. Cook refused, saying that writing software to defeat on-device encryption would create a master key for every iPhone and could not be limited in use or taken back after it was handed over.

The standoff ended with the US Government paying third-party contractors to break into the handset, and Apple was not called on to enact the changes. Yet a very public line was drawn in the sand, bringing the encryption debate into public consciousness, with Apple making its commitment to user security a key iPhone benefit.

iPhone Encryption Remains A Worldwide Legal Issue

Apple continues to face legal attacks on its approach to user encryption; pressure from the UK Government has pushed Apple to offer a degraded encryption service to new UK consumers . Yet the San Bernardino clash altered how consumer hardware was marketed. Security stopped becoming invisible as end-to-end encryption became a feature consumers sought.

This is Day 22 of 30 Days of iPhone. Yesterday, we looked at the introduction of Apple Pay and contactless payments in the US .