When prompted with the suggestion of creating a new iOS system that allows for the FBI to retrieve information from any iPhone, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the web with a letter addressed to all customers.  

“Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession,” Cook wrote.

The FBI specifically wanted access to a phone from a terrorist who killed 14 and injured 22 in the San Bernardino shooting.

“It has been two months now, and we are still working on [unlocking it],” FBI Director James B. Comey told Congress.

However, Cook refuses to create a way to bypass the lock screen code.

“We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create,” Cook wrote.

Cook believes that this “backdoor” would become devastating if someone used it for personal usage after unlocking the terrorist’s phone.

“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices,” Cook wrote. “In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”

Apple plans to file an opposition to the ruling within the next upcoming days.

“We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications,” Cook wrote. “While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”