Seattle police want tech to unlock iPhones. Not so fast, ACLU says

Carolyn Adolph

October 25, 2018 / 8:22 am

Seattle police have asked the city to buy Graykey, a technology that unlocks iPhones to police officers investigating crimes. That technology is not on Seattle’s list of 29 surveillance technologies that are up for public review.

The American Civil Liberties Union says it should get public comment, however. Last Friday the ACLU wrote to City Council, asking for a full review.

The request was spurred on by the suggestion in a city document that the technology would be exempt from public review since police would need a warrant to be able to use it, as first reported by Seattle Patch.

In its email, the ACLU pointed out that use of surveillance technology with a warrant is not exempted under the city's surveillance ordinance. Ginger Armbruster, chief privacy officer, now says the technology is still being considered, with no final decision made.

In an interview with KUOW, Armbruster apologized for not making it clear earlier that the technology was still under scrutiny.

“There’s significant privacy issues associated with this," she said. “Graykey may well be surveillance technology at this point. We’re not sure," she continued. "We’re not even sure what it is.

"We need to do a deeper privacy assessment.”

The ACLU said there was little doubt that a technology with the power to unlock an iPhone raised significant privacy concerns. And it said that should be reason enough to ensure it receives a full public review.

“This is another effort by the Seattle Police Department to acquire a powerful surveillance technology without the requisite public scrutiny,” said Shankar Narayan of the ACLU’s Seattle office. He wrote the email to council last week.

“We think that Graykey clearly meets the definition of being a surveillance technology. It is for the purpose of analyzing the movements and behaviors of an individual.”

However, Graykey appears to have a significant problem: multiple reports say Apple is fixing the vulnerability that allowed it to work. That leaves other technologies on the market that also promise law enforcement access to iPhones, such as Cellebrite.