Apple Is Building An Online Portal For Police To Make Data Requests (cnet.com) 75
In a letter last Tuesday to Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Apple said it is working on an online portal for law enforcement officials to submit and track requests for data and obtain responses from the company. Apple also said it's "creating a dedicated team to help train law enforcement officials around the world in digital forensics," reports CNET. From the report: The letter, seen by CNET, addresses recommendations made in a report issued earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) regarding cybersecurity and the "digital evidence needs" of law enforcement agencies. Apple said in the letter that it's eager to adopt the report's recommendations, including making upgrades to its law enforcement training program. This includes developing an online training module for police that mirrors Apple's current in-person training, according to the letter and to details on the company's website.
"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."
"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."
Re: As opposed to (Score:1)
My guess would be they answered to emails, and possibly faxes. So they had to manage it cause by case. Building such a portal makes sense from a purely organizational/process pov. This is a non-story imo
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Will there be fields for entering the search warrant information?
Ha, ha! Just kidding!
Re:As opposed to (Score:5, Insightful)
"How they did it before? They have no idea how to work with the police?"
It's just a small script returning a line saying:
'Sorry, the data you want is encrypted and we don't have the password.'
It replaces 200 telephone operators reading that line from a monitor.
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The ownership and transfers of ownership of the phone, itself, would exist in Apple's customer records. So would customer information in their iTunes store, such as the date of purchases. That is not the same thing as copies of the data _on_ an Apple manufactured device, such as an iPhone. But along with Apple's customer tracking data, it's potentially quite useful for reporting customer location during the time of a crime under investigation.
DO NOT CLICK THE LINK (Score:3)
Slashdot editors are getting dirtier every day.
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Excuse me, but why are you posting that in response to _my_ message? I was trying to point out that Apple's encrypted client data is not the only data they have. Even with the client's data robustly encrypted, without master keys, that there is other client data Apple _would_ have available and unencrypted to their own billing departments and account management.
I I may also point out, "dirty" editing is not the same as careless or sloppy editing, or a failure to verify stories. All of them are troubling, bu
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The police worked with people who could do advance "jailbreak" like work as needed on the early big brand phones.
Re: As opposed to (Score:1)
If a court order exists Apple will do what it can to provide information they have to the police. What they refused to do was build a backdoor onto their phone that would allow anyone with the software to essentially bypass the encryption. They did this because they knew once it was created there was no way it could be contained, as we have seen with all the NSA leaks.
Additionally it's a good marketing position since their biggest competition Google (Android) is the biggest marketing company in the world an
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By default your phone backs up to iCloud. This is encrypted while "in-flight" but not encrypted on Apple's servers. All your text messages, voice mails, and phone records are included in this "backup." It's all available to the police immediately via a simple request. All searches you make in Apple Maps and all directions you take are also available from Apple.
Apple's "privacy stance" is all a joke. They claim that the phone is super-secure - and then use its always-on connectivity to ensure that it doesn't
will master key unlock code requests be put it? (Score:2)
will master key unlock code requests be put it?
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Is that reply supposed to be a "second answer of wrongness"? There are at least two ways to interpret what you wrote, so would you mind clarifying?
My first guess is that you are asking if the new system will allow the police to directly request to unlock phones. In the extreme case they might be able to ask without a warrant, which actually could be possible based on some fine print in the EULA or ToS or something else you clicked on without reading.
Possibly relevant links:
https://termsfeed.com/blog/app... [termsfeed.com]
h [apple.com]
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Re:My goodness, what could possible go wrong? (Score:5, Informative)
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If you want to play with the trolls, then you can clarify things by quoting the source. Pretty sure I'm not the only one to set the ACs to low visibility. I thought you were talking to me (because of the subject from my troll-modded post), but I couldn't figure out the linkage to any of my content--because there wasn't any. You made me look at the AC and now I need to use more eye drops.
Even better if you stop playing with trolls. Abuse of anonymity is on the list of major problems with Slashdot. I think #1
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I don't agree, but I admit that I only glanced at the AC comment, so maybe I missed something. Remember that I was only there because I read a reply that seemed to be addressed to me based on the Subject: (which I had written). His reply seemed unrelated to anything that I had written, so if the AC was relevant and "legimate" (though I'm unsure what you mean by that), then I don't feel it was transmitted into the discussion. Nor have you carried forward any of those points, assuming they were important.
On t
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Oh my! The stupidium-powered trolls are out in force today? Or is it for a religious violation, heresy against the Apple?
In theory, I own Apple. Both a device and the company. My recent experience with the device has actually been surprisingly positive and they rounded the terms of the warranty in my favor. The dividends? Not so much.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sherriff Joe wasn't crooked by my standards. Quite the opposite, he stood up for what he believed and felt was right in the face of legislation and lots of political pressure. Now I don't agree with his politics at all but I do admire his willingness to buck the system and make a stand even at the cost of his job and possible jail time for contempt. If only there were politicians with the same degree of integrity, what ever their political beliefs were the US would be a better place.
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Can't decide if you're a troll or I'm just having trouble following your reasoning.
Arpaio was supposed to be a police officer of some sort, but he felt he was some sort of judge, jury, and executioner. Are you saying that he wouldn't use this new interface to get evidence against his favorite criminals? If so, I might agree, since evidence scarcely mattered to Arpaio.
Or are you saying that criminals are okay as long as they are sincere? In the latter case, I think we're just quibbling about the scope of pol
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Have you lived in Maricopa County?
I'm guessing you haven't. I too respected Sheriff Joe before I moved there. I admired his tough-on-crime stance and thought he was a good guy like you do, but Sheriff Joke and "integrity" are two polar opposites..
When I moved to the PHX area I found out the national news about him was just his publicity machine and he wasn't what I thought.
My main concern at first wasn't even that he's racist. He was corrupt as hell and much of what he did was publicity stunts. He cost
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
He violated the rights of inmates who were already in prison, leaving them in tents with temperatures up to 145F, feeding them only twice a day, fed them discarded food that couldn't be sold,
He closed 75% of sex crimes without proper investigation. The rapes of 13 and 14 year old girls were closed because the suspects didn't want to be questioned.
Another 13 year old who was repeatedly raped by her uncle had her case closed for four years after the officers lied about the rape kit results (semen was found,
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I mean, seriously, have we not learned anything about the government's, or any government's ability to abuse their power?
You're right! Currently there's no WAY to get information from a huge service provider in any way that could originate with an improper request or someone up to no good.
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My knee-jerk response is: Obviously not.
OTOH, just from reading the summary this makes sense for Apple - as if they didn't already have a team dealing with law enforcement. They're just streamlining the process of handling law enforcement requests from what I can tell. So when Barney Fife calls them up and asks to unlock an iPhone they can direct him to a website where they can tell him they can't unlock that iPhone.
I don't think Apple has just decided to roll over and give law enforcement anything they w
Bingo! (Score:2)
So if I manage to hack po-dunk police force's systems, I can data straight from Apple?
I already made one for them (Score:2)
http://127.0.0.1/ [127.0.0.1]
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"Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host." and "Failed to Connect
The connection was refused when attempting to contact 127.0.0.1.
Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.
Could the site be temporarily unavailable? Try again later.
Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computerâ(TM)s network connection.
Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect
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Catching up with the times (Score:3, Informative)
The potential to abuse X is persistent - it always exists. The risks to protect the public and aid LE with investigations outweighs any privacy concern... ultimately, it's pretty simple - if you didn't do anything, LE won't bother with your data as they have enough on the go with actual investigations. If you did do something and they have judicial authorization, then they should get to your data.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Too bad you can't ask the dead Jews of Germany for their opinion.
Any persecuted minority (or majority) will be more vulernable.
Re:Catching up with the times (Score:4, Insightful)
People who use this canard as a justification for wholesale, casual invasion of citizens' privacy should be pissed on from a height.
To a cop, president, well-connected church leader or even whole government, "If you didn't do anything" often means, "If you protest", "If your sexuality doesn't match what I say it should be", "If your skin is the wrong colour" or a dozen other alleged threats to the public good.
People who don't understand this are either hopelessly naive or members of the power structure. They almost certainly have something to gain by persuading people the privacy of a free citizen in a free country to go about their legal business without being targeted in one way or another by the government has no value. In fact it is the cornerstone of a free society.
Sometimes freedom has a cost. In today's world, that cost is more often paid by civilians than by police or the military. Accept this, or accept that you do not deserve to be free.
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The risks to protect the public and aid LE with investigations outweighs any privacy concern...
When did we all agree on this? I don't remember getting to vote on it.
Well, that's very VERY disappointing... (Score:1)
... particularly with the current president and his repeatedly-stated intention to abuse law enforcement as a tool with which to attack his political enemies. I wonder why Tim Cook flip-flopped and gave in to the thuggery.
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Online Portal (Score:2)
INB4 a link to Goatse Guy.
/dev/nul (Score:2)
We should all help the police in every way we can! (Score:3)
I would like to suggest a system for Apple to implement. It would consist of a series of standardized steps to ensure police forces get all the help they deserve as they try to turn enterprises built and paid for by others to their own ends.
Completion of each stage of the process would initiate the start of the next, ensuring a seamless, orderly progression which would service the police most efficiently. These steps in the system I'm proposing, in order, would start with " B egin ", when the basic contact information from the requesting police officer is accepted, recorded and verified. Next would be " L earn ", which would include an extremely lengthy, comprehensive questionnaire allowing the officer to define the force's needs and expectations. When this questionnaire has been successfully completed, reviewed and verified, the next step, " O ffer " would be initiated. This is when the company would tell the police force what it was able to do to accommodate its needs. Then would come " W ork ", when the actual process of informing customers that the police needed some of their private information would commence, and the company would assemble all the data the thankful citizens provided.
After a pause to ensure all relevant information had been provided, the next phase, " M anage " would commence. This would consist of another lengthy questionnaire to be filled out by the police, when they would let the company know whether their needs had been met. If not, at this point an actual live interaction between a company official and a police representative might have to occur. Police expectations could be managed and redefined to ensure that they are reasonable and achievable within a democratic context. Finally there would be " E xit ", when the police force representative would fill out another questionnaire that would allow the company to judge its effectiveness at meeting the needs of the government's information-gathering initiatives.
For efficiency, and to let various security agencies know what they should expect, the first initial of each step of my process would form the acronym introducing the portal.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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Training program, that's rich (Score:2)