Bill Gates intervened on the thorny issue that has been raging in the US for at least a couple of years, especially after the case of San Bernardino: preferring national security or user privacy?

The San Bernardino case saw the FBI and Apple as protagonists. After the tragic attack, the FBI asked Apple to unlock the terrorist iPhone 5c to discover new evidence. The Cupertino company, after making the necessary checks, made it known that the smartphone was an updated version of iOS that included more protections, and that, therefore, it was not possible to unlock the device if not installing a backdoor. This backdoor, if it had ever been discovered, would have put at risk all the iPhone in circulation. In the end, the FBI managed to get the iPhone unlocked thanks to the advice of a third company, but since then we continue to discuss we need to protect the privacy of users or national security.
According to Bill Gates, there is no doubt: the government must be able to take data on any smartphone on the market, when obviously there may be essential evidence to solve certain cases. For this reason, manufacturers should also be obliged to allow unlocked encrypted smartphones.
Without this kind of "unlocking", the risk is to leave several cases unresolved and not be able to punish the guilty. Gates did not explicitly appoint Apple, but he referred to recent cases that also involved the FBI. A clear reference to the case of San Bernardino. For Bill Gates, in fact, it is not a question of skill, but of simple will. If companies want, a solution can be found. For this reason, Gates advises companies to move in time, before forcing the government to legislate on this issue to insert a real obligation.
While the general thought of Gates can certainly be shared, one must remember that there is no sure way to break the cryptography. Forcing companies to provide a way to overcome the encryption of a particular smartphone would mean jeopardizing the security of all users using that model.