Google agrees with Apple: Tech companies shouldn’t hack consumers’ devices

Apple isn’t backing down against the FBI, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai doesn’t think the iPhone maker should do so.

In a series of tweets sent today (Feb. 17), Pichai threw his support behind Apple CEO Tim Cook in his refusal to help the US Federal Bureau of Investigation break into an iPhone used by one of the assailants in the San Bernardino, California shootings. While trying to access the phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the FBI has been hampered by an Apple security feature that wipes the data from an iPhone after too many failed unlocking attempts.

Reiterating a point Cook made in a Feb. 16 open letter, Pichai said that forcing tech companies to hack users’ devices “could be a troubling precedent.”