A precedent that emerged in the wake of 9/11, which has yet to be fully reckoned with, is the unending push and pull between mass data collection for the alleged public good, a preventative measure to gather intelligence and curtail future attacks and the right to privacy over personal information and communication that Americans feel entitled to. This debate has reached far greater public consciousness since the Edward Snowden leak, but it seems after every terrorist incident, new wrinkles emerge.

Count the San Bernardino attacks as another in a long line to uphold this tradition. The FBI has been unable to crack into an iPhone owned by one of the two shooters who killed 14 people this past December, and a federal judge has ordered Apple to create a new operating system that will allow federal agents to try as many passcodes as needed without triggering the standard iOS feature of total data erasure after the 10th incorrect guess.

As a brief aside — with full understanding and appreciation of the truly fraught humanist issues at the heart of this story — I find the (fallacious, I know) mental image of a group of highly trained agents of the United States government gathering around an old iPhone and being unable to access it wonderfully absurd. “Have we tried seven-four-six-one yet?”

Regardless, Apple has refused to comply. In a long statement released yesterday, CEO Tim Cook referred to the “implications of the government’s demands” as “chilling” and openly wondered about such a capability leading to the “power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data” or the “demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”

In one sense, this can seem like a reasonable, fair alarm. The federal government has proven itself to be a structure prone to privacy infringement, and it is perfectly legitimate to worry about federal agents potentially having both the means and motives to eventually access far more personal information than they did prior. Certainly, this is what Cook claims to be fretting, and if he were a neutral observer, I might be inclined to put more stock into his warnings.

Alas, that is not the case, as he is the CEO of Apple, and anyone who follows issues of tech privacy even at the most casual level will see a hypocritical position here. If you haven’t, go ahead and Google something like “Apple privacy issues;” there was the always-on microphone of the iPhone 6s, the inability to use two-factor authentication with iCloud until the celebrity nude leak scandal, the location and search data automatically gathered (and shared with Microsoft) when using iOS 8’s Spotlight feature.

Some of these concerns may seem trivial, some may not. The fact remains, however, that Apple’s record on privacy is no gold standard, and Cook’s refusal of the federal government is, among other things, a PR stunt. Apple wants its consumers to trust them with their data, with their privacy, and calling out the FBI’s potentially deceptive goals is a way to do so. In reality though, the issue is not how to keep our privacy, but who to trust with it.

And that, I have less of a good answer for. I am an Apple user; I have an iPhone and a Mac. I am also deeply skeptical of tech companies gathering intelligence on me to sell me new products — data is of the highest value because it allows for the targeting of trends and habits, and I find Apple’s (and myriad other corporations) practice of collecting it dangerous. That does not mean, of course, that I am more comfortable with a federal agency acquiring my personal information without my knowledge or permission, even as I have to acknowledge the potential safety hazards that could be addressed with it.

In any case, we should see this problem for what it is. Apple’s stance against the federal government is not a valiant struggle for personal privacy; it is a battle between the private and public sector over who owns our data. So, be wary of where you put your trust.

Ely Vance is a senior English major. He can be reached at evancedbk@gmail.com.