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Google CEO supports Apple in fight over federal court order

Google CEO Sundar Pichai lent support to Apple Wednesday as the company fights a federal court order mandating it bypass security measures to break into a phone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters.

In a series of Tweets, Pichai said the government was "forcing companies to enable hacking," a move which could set a "troubling precedent."

A federal judge in California ordered Apple to help break into an iPhone that belonged to Syed Farook. He and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2 before dying in a shootout with police.

In a letter to customers posted to Apple's website Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook called the move an "overreach by the U.S. government" that would leave all of the company's customers open to later hacking attempts.

"Once created, the technique (to bypass an iPhone passcode) could be used over and over again, on any number of devices," he 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."