The U.S. Justice Department withdrew its legal effort to compel Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California shooters after a third party successfully demonstrated the ability to access the phone’s contents Monday.
The move is the latest development in what has become a public discussion in what takes precedent — privacy or security — and now raises questions over whether Apple will be notified of the methods used to break into the phone without their help.
The phone — an iPhone 5C running iOS 9, according to The New York Times — belonged to Syed Farook, a gunman who took part in the shooting in San Bernardino in December that left 14 dead. The Justice Department originally requested Apple’s aid in unlocking the phone to analyze any data that may have helped in their investigation, but the company refused.
“Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk,” said Apple in an open letter to its customers once the legal storm over access to the phone’s contents began. “That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.”
The federal government, however, was able to bypass Apple’s stance when a third party approached it with an offer to unlock the phone. The identity of the third party is not yet known, and no further information on the phone’s contents has been revealed at time of press.