… Mr. Obama warned Friday against “fetishizing our phones above every other value.” After avoiding taking a position for months, he finally came down on the side of law enforcement, saying that using technology to prevent legal searches of smartphones was the equivalent of preventing the police from searching a house for evidence of child pornography.
“That can’t be the right answer,” he said at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, even as he professed deep appreciation for civil liberties and predicted both sides would find a way to cooperate. “I’m confident this is something that we can solve.”
But polls suggest the public is nowhere near as certain as Mr. Obama. In surveys, Americans are deeply divided about the legal struggle between the government and one of the nation’s most iconic companies. The polls show that Americans remain anxious about both the threat of terrorist attacks and the possible theft of personal digital information. CONT.
Michael D. Shear, David E. Sanger & Katie Benner, New York Times