In 2016, the FBI asked Apple to help the law enforcement agency get into the iPhone of the alleged terrorist who killed 14 people in San Bernardino with a malicious update, but the company said it couldn't because it was an unreasonable request that would undermine the security of all iPhone users. Apple's position helped solidify its image as a company that values security, and the iPhone as a more secure device than various Android phones.

But in a talk at the USENIX Enigma conference in Burlingame, California on Tuesday, Rene Mayrhofer, Google’s Director of Android Platform Security, made clear that Google is taking technical steps to be able to make the same argument in case the FBI comes knocking.

Mayrhofer was referring to the way the latest version of the Android operating system, Pie, which is baked into Google’s flagship phone, the Pixel 3, deals with updates and data encrypted on the device. Thanks to these new security features—announced last year—Google can’t push out a malicious software update to an Android phone. Nor, Mayrhofer said, can Google modify its firmware to disable security features and make it easier for someone like the FBI to guess or brute force the passcode and get to the user’s personal data.

"We want to make it impossible for insiders to get this kind of access for whatever reasons, whatever motivation,” Mayrhofer said. “And law enforcement is, I would say—the inability to react to legal requests here is an unintended side effect of this mitigation.".

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