--- title: Apple-FBI Fight: Obama at SXSW Advises Balance in Tech description: President Barack Obama advised against adopting "absolutist" views about privacy and security when it comes to technology, speaking at SXSW canonical: https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-12T17:09:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:49:41.732Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama argues against 'absolutist' views amid Apple-FBI fight og:description: He said phones and data shouldn't be exempt from tradeoffs for security og:url: https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bae37ec54af90fe/69888ac03c1639823245c696/barack-obama-sxsw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Barack Obama speaks at SXSW og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama argues against 'absolutist' views amid Apple-FBI fight twitter:description: He said phones and data shouldn't be exempt from tradeoffs for security twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bae37ec54af90fe/69888ac03c1639823245c696/barack-obama-sxsw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Argues Against 'Absolutist' Views Amid Apple-FBI Fight > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b130158d-cd70-4358-80c0-74340e354c13&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Raw: Watch Obama's Keynote Speech at SXSW [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Watch Obama's Keynote Speech at SXSW](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YMFqXJae.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2016-03-12_  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 12, 2016 5:09 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 12, 2016 5:09 PM UTC President Barack Obama [advised against adopting “absolutist” views](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/03/11/transcript-obama-remarks-sxsw/6m8IFsnpJh2k3XWxifHQnJ/story.html) about privacy and security when it comes to technology, addressing a crowd at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) on Friday amid the [ongoing Apple-FBI ](http://time.com/4254651/justice-department-probable-cause/)[encryption battle.](http://time.com/4255362/apple-iphone-encryption-fbi-terrorists/) “My conclusion so far is that you cannot take an absolutist view on this,” he said. “I suspect that the answer is going to come down to how do we create a system where the encryption is as strong as possible, the key is as secure as possible, it is accessible by the smallest number of people possible for a subset of issues that we agree are important?” His comments to the tech community at the festival come as [Apple challenges a court order](http://time.com/4227086/tim-cook-apple-ceo-court-order-iphone-encryption-san-bernardino/) obtained by FBI investigators who say they need the company’s help in unlocking the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has said unlocking the phone would set a dangerous precedent, and many in the tech community have sided with the company. While declining to comment on the specific Apple case due to ongoing legal action, Obama said the country must seek to balance the rights and risks associated with privacy, security and technology. He said Americans make other concessions of privacy or convenience in the interest of security, including TSA screenings before flights and stops to screen for drunken drivers on the road. “This notion that somehow our data is different and can be walled off from those other tradeoffs we make I believe is incorrect,” he said. Obama said strong encryption is important for preventing terrorist attacks and stopping people from hacking and disrupting financial or air traffic control systems, which are increasingly digital. But he said even if devices are impenetrable because of encryption, there still needs to be a way to catch child pornographers or terrorists. “If, in fact, you can’t crack that at all, government can’t get in, then everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket, right? So there has to be some concession to the need to be able to get into that information somehow,” he said. However, the President cautioned that oversight over government surveillance was also important. “We don’t want government to be looking through everybody’s phones, willy-nilly, without any kind of oversight or probable cause or a clear sense that it’s targeted at somebody who might be a wrong-doer,” Obama added. \[[Read his full remarks](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/03/11/transcript-obama-remarks-sxsw/6m8IFsnpJh2k3XWxifHQnJ/story.html), as reported by the Boston _Globe_.\] ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ APPLAUSE ] Hey. [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you, so nice to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ INAUDIBLE ] Thank you, Mr. President. It's good to be back. Nice to have you here. Welcome. Welcome to Austin. Welcome to South by Southwest. Let's make a little news. You stopped at Torchy's on the way in from the airport. I did. [ SOUND ] You did? I did. Would you please share with the world what you told me backstage. Your order, perfectly, in keeping with your political views? I ordered the Democrat. [ APPLAUSE ] But then I ordered a Republican and an Independent because I wanted to give all people a proper hearing. That's right. I wanted to be fair. The reason I'm here really is recruit all of you. Its to say to you as I'm about to leave office how can we start coming up with new platforms new ideas new approaches across disciplines and across Skill sets. The question we now have to ask is if technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there's no key, there's no door at all Then how do we apprehend the child pornographer? How do we solve a Or disrupted terrorist plot. I anguish a lot over the decisions we make in terms of how to keep this country safe and I am not interested in overthrowing the values that have made us an exceptional and great nation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/"},"headline":"Obama Argues Against 'Absolutist' Views Amid Apple-FBI Fight","datePublished":"2016-03-12T17:09:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:49:41.732Z","description":"He said phones and data shouldn't be exempt from tradeoffs for security","url":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/","keywords":["The White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bae37ec54af90fe/69888ac03c1639823245c696/barack-obama-sxsw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bae37ec54af90fe/69888ac03c1639823245c696/barack-obama-sxsw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama speaks at SXSW","caption":"at Long Center on March 11, 2016 in Austin, Texas.","creditText":"Neilson Barnard/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/the-white-house/","name":"The White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/","name":"Obama Argues Against 'Absolutist' Views Amid Apple-FBI Fight"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Raw: Watch Obama's Keynote Speech at SXSW","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YMFqXJae/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-12T00:16:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YMFqXJae.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4256606/barack-obama-sxsw-apple-fbi-encryption-question/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```