Apple's Fight With US Over Privacy Enters a New Round (bloomberg.com) 62
An anonymous reader shares a report on Bloomberg: Apple Inc.'s fight over privacy with the U.S. isn't over yet, even after the government dropped a demand for the company's help in accessing a California shooter's iPhone because someone else found a way to crack it. The U.S. said it'll keep fighting to get the company's help in getting data off a phone in Brooklyn, New York, that belonged to a drug dealer because Apple provided assistance in accessing such devices earlier. In a court filing Friday, the government said it's going ahead with an appeal of a judge's order denying its request for Apple's help. The battle between the world's most valuable tech company and the U.S. over encryption and data privacy has sparked a national debate, with dozens of companies and organizations siding with Apple, while law enforcement has generally taken the government's side.
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Well... (Score:5, Funny)
.. all politicians and LEOs can turn over all their private communications and information FIRST...
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Laws don't apply to LEOs and politicians already enjoy a reality-distortion field that shields them from all legal consequences unless a higher level politician attacks them. Combine this with the fact that we have so many laws that practically every citizen breaks one or more of them each day with the increasing amounts of warrantless mass surveillance and you have a recipe for modern feudalism. Instead of owning land and having titles, today's lords are LEOs, government officials or politicians, and the
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politicians already enjoy a reality-distortion field that shields them from all legal consequences
I guess... I guess they're not so different from apple after all.
Re: Well... (Score:1)
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It's a wonder we don;t have more home-grown terrorists in this country since the system of checks and balances in terms of people vs. politicians is utter trash
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I love living in a country where you are stripped of all your rights when accused of a crime! Isn't it great?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:hoo boy this article. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:hoo boy this article. (Score:5, Insightful)
google does not, and never had (and likely never will) stand for 'privacy' or security.
apple can con us into thinking that they care about this (and in many ways, they really do) - but google makes no money from the concept of user privacy. its laughable once you think about it. if google seriously tried to tell us NOW that they care about our privacy, we'd have a great big laugh. maybe a year after they were founded and many of us believe the 'do no evil' motto; but now, its 100% eroded and we see the emperor and his lack of clothing.
apple still has some semblance of user privacy as their selling point.
who else does?
more importantly, who else is RICH ENOUGH to withstand the economic pressure that the government would inflict on any company less than apple's level of might, who dares deny papa his due data.
just like there is no free press anymore in popular media; the media will never call the government out on any hardball issues for fear of being cutoff from future interviews or even worse. they are all running scared and so they 'play ball' with the gov and do as they are told. now, 100% worthless. we have no honest reporting left in popular media, in the US.
this is what happens when you let a corrupt government get so powerful, only the richest company in the world would dare to go against them, and its only because their crown jewels (iphone) is at stake.
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Why did it take so long for the tech community to figure out that Google was just another company? Why did we EVER believe that "don't be evil" crap? Are we that stupid that marketing just needs to use a few words that resonate with us to turn is into sheep who are just as gullible as vacuous women calling for L'Oreal ads?
Re:hoo boy this article. (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, Apple also stopped providing decryption services when iOS 8 was released that cranked up the encryption usage and made even less stuff accessible.
Because it's almost impossible to tell which version of iOS is running and Apple knows they can't break into an iOS 8 and above phone. Explaining to LEOs why one phone can be decrypted but another can't is an exercise in futility, and it's quite likely Apple will try and fail after having spent a week attempting it only to discover it was updated to the latest iOS.
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Re:hoo boy this article. (Score:5, Interesting)
this took place largely through secret FISA court orders and wasnt a huge problem until the FBI pulled the wig off the fat lady. Apple would love to continue secretly unlocking phones,
It's possible that the straw which broke the camel's back was the FBI's request for Apple to write a cracking tool. Rather than unlocking phones for them one at a time. With the tool, the FBI could go into the business of cracking phones themselves, no warrant (secret court or otherwise) needed.
Furthermore, a sly DoJ lawyer could make an argument that, once the FBI has been provided with such a tool, any attempt by Apple to improve phone security could be interpreted as interfering with law enforcement if the tool ceased to work. Once you give the FBI a capability, it will be hell taking it back.
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If I write a piece of software that tells you where any person was yesterday at noon JUST for one missing persons case, you would be a fool if you did not think they would come to me every 5 minutes to get info on someone new. Before long it wouldn't just be missing people, it would be anyone who had crossed anyone in power.
We both KNOW thats what would happen. Quit playing otherwise.
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Leaving (Score:1)
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Can you name the less fucked up country they should move to?
(hint: all countries are fucked up one way or another.)
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Iceland after the next election?
What about Android? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why do we never hear stories about Google fighting the FBI to protect Android users' privacy and right to encryption? Is it because Google is complacent with the government, or is it because Android phones are so easy to crack that the FBI doesn't even bother to ask?
Re:What about Android? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do we never hear stories about Google fighting the FBI to protect Android users' privacy and right to encryption? Is it because Google is complacent with the government, or is it because Android phones are so easy to crack that the FBI doesn't even bother to ask?
Because android phones are ridiculously easy to break into without any help.
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There is a good reason they renamed their parent company Alphabet. Get it? Alphabet organizations.
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There is a good reason they renamed their parent company Alphabet. Get it?
So they can be listed alphabetically before Apple?
Re:What about Android? (Score:5, Funny)
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Because google even pretending to fight for privacy would be hilariously hypocritical.
Of course they fight for privacy.
Except that they call it "mining rights".
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If the hardware is in gov hands?
If the hardware is still been used in the wild and data is been entered and displayed via a fancy user installed software "app" encryption layer?
Sparked a "debate"? Why? (Score:2)
There should be no debate. The state has no right to compel "assistance", any more than it has for a confession, from anybody outside its own employees, politicians, military, bureaucrats, etc.
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actually, the State does. It is law in many countries. It is also law in the USA if a 'National Security' issue is at stake. Literally federal marshalls can come in and sit behind you at your desk with guns at your head and 'make' you perform... Shoot you if you do not.
You may want to look it up.
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Yes, under the guise of *might makes right* the state can do what it wants. The problem from our end is submission and obedience.
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Literally federal marshalls can come in and sit behind you at your desk with guns at your head and 'make' you perform... Shoot you if you do not.
You may want to look it up.
[citation needed]
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Yes, that's called "suicide by cop", the bright side being that all your problems are solved.
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This shouldn't be necessary, but [citation needed].
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actually, the State does. It is law in many countries. It is also law in the USA if a 'National Security' issue is at stake. Literally federal marshalls can come in and sit behind you at your desk with guns at your head and 'make' you perform... Shoot you if you do not.
You may want to look it up.
WTF? Why don't you just point out the law that gives Federal Marshals the power to summarily execute citizens for failure to perform and ordered task. I'm calling bullshit.
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Put it this way... It may not be technically legal, I don't know, but there are historic examples of essentially that kind of thing happening. And the marshals were neither fired nor disciplined. (There may also be examples where they were fired, of course.)
Fair pay (Score:1)
Waiting for the TPP (Score:1)
I'm waiting for tha passage of the TPP so Apple can sue the US Government for the 'damages' to it's business caused by being forced to 'unlock' iPhones using the provisoins of the TPP that allow for business governement dispute resolutions in the oh so business friendly private 'courts' of the TPP.
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Mod the parent up!!
It probably wouldn't happen though, because the US has a history of ignoring treaty obligations, while insisting that others honor them.
I believe I have a right to fully encrypt my... (Score:1)
Give me Liberty!
But the notch on a prosecutor's belt! (Score:2)
They should require escrow keys -- after all, it is far more important to catch a drug lord than risk falling down into permanent panopticon 1984 tyranny, with a boot on a human face, forever.
Well, we know the US will never fall because history shows, wait, it doesn't show shit about democracies falling, in fact it shows they always do.
But even if it doesn't, China and Russia won't abuse the exact same power. Wait, they already do. Well, sux2b them.
But it is worth the risk to catch a drug lord, so let's r