The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies. Its application would mark a significant defeat for tech companies in their decades-long battle to avoid being wielded as government tools against their users, the people said, speaking under the condition of anonymity to discuss legally and politically sensitive issues.
Rather than break the security promises it made to its users everywhere, Apple is likely to stop offering encrypted storage in the U.K., the people said. Yet that concession would not fulfill the U.K. demand for backdoor access to the service in other countries, including the United States.
...
At issue is cloud storage that only the user, not Apple, can unlock. Apple started rolling out the option, which it calls Advanced Data Protection, in 2022. It had sought to offer it several years earlier but backed off after objections from the FBI during the first term of President Donald Trump, who pilloried the company for not aiding in the arrest of “killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.” The service is an available security option for Apple users in the United States and elsewhere.
While most iPhone and Mac computer users do not go through the steps to enable it, the service offers enhanced protection from hacking and shuts down a routine method law enforcement uses to access photos, messages and other material. iCloud storage and backups are favored targets for U.S. search warrants, which can be served on Apple without the user knowing.
I hope Apple tell us to fuck off. It's embarrassing that Keir Starmer has learned nothing from fourteen years of Tory rule and is acting like just as much of an authoritarian asswipe as his...
I hope Apple tell us to fuck off.
It's embarrassing that Keir Starmer has learned nothing from fourteen years of Tory rule and is acting like just as much of an authoritarian asswipe as his predecessors.
That is at least restricted to their jurisdiction. This demand is for global reach, which seems absurd and likely to result in insurmountable legal conflicts: can Apple comply with data privacy...
That is at least restricted to their jurisdiction. This demand is for global reach, which seems absurd and likely to result in insurmountable legal conflicts: can Apple comply with data privacy laws in other countries, for example, while also giving the UK a back door even to data stored in those countries?
Surely if China demanded that Apple give it access to UK users' data, stored in the UK, and unrelated to China, the UK government would decry that as abusive and unacceptable. Yet that appears to be exactly what the UK is demanding.
I have wondered if these governments are really just completely misreading the amount of leverage they actually have. A great example is how Facebook decided to ban links to news sites rather than...
I have wondered if these governments are really just completely misreading the amount of leverage they actually have. A great example is how Facebook decided to ban links to news sites rather than pay them.
Who would really come out on top if Apple publicly stated intent to pull out of the UK because their government was trying to globally violate everyone's privacy? Apple maybe loses a market, the politicians pushing Apple out probably become hated by everyone that has and likes Apple products (potentially repealing the whole thing), and Apple maybe even gets some small bump in international sales from people that look at it and go, "that's real commitment to privacy, I trust them even more."
I'm sure people will. In the past couple of years I have seriously considered stepping over to Apple for precisely that reason. They've been very hardline against breaching security when outside...
I'm sure people will. In the past couple of years I have seriously considered stepping over to Apple for precisely that reason. They've been very hardline against breaching security when outside parties request them to do so, even making it harder by forcing iPhones to reboot and lock after a certain period of inactivity. If anything, I know that Apple will not freely hand over the keys to the kingdom.
It's just that I dislike everything else about their products that I haven't made the jump.
I made the switch last year, partially for this reason and don’t regret it. The other reason is that my day job involves a lot of troubleshooting and supporting janky technology and after I leave...
I made the switch last year, partially for this reason and don’t regret it. The other reason is that my day job involves a lot of troubleshooting and supporting janky technology and after I leave my office, I really just want my devices to work - particularly my phone. I was never going to install a new OS on my phone with all the potential issues that come with that.
It took a couple months for get used to everything, but honestly I haven’t found a single thing that I had configured in Android that I couldn’t do in iOS.
It's not about not having the ability to do things -although Firefox add-ons and ReVanced certainly influence the choice- it's that I do not like certain usability aspects of an iPhone. I'm in the...
It's not about not having the ability to do things -although Firefox add-ons and ReVanced certainly influence the choice- it's that I do not like certain usability aspects of an iPhone.
I'm in the position that I frequently use both options, my personal phone is a Pixel and my work phone is an iPhone, and I just sincerely dislike the keyboard/autocorrect and general navigation on an iPhone. No matter what, I can't get it to feel natural. Though credit where credit is due, their face unlock is stellar making it easy for me to quickly pick up the iPhone for a quick internet search over the Pixel. But.. for a daily use device it needs to feel comfortable and natural. iPhone does not do that for me.
That means this is an internal ideological versus practical debate that so far sees me go for practical. But with Apple (reluctantly) opening up side loading and additional freedoms I may spring for one at some point.
Hopefully this Streisand Effects the existence of the Advanced Data Protection setting and results in more people enabling it.
For those that don't have it on: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108756
From the article:
...
I hope Apple tell us to fuck off.
It's embarrassing that Keir Starmer has learned nothing from fourteen years of Tory rule and is acting like just as much of an authoritarian asswipe as his predecessors.
That is at least restricted to their jurisdiction. This demand is for global reach, which seems absurd and likely to result in insurmountable legal conflicts: can Apple comply with data privacy laws in other countries, for example, while also giving the UK a back door even to data stored in those countries?
Surely if China demanded that Apple give it access to UK users' data, stored in the UK, and unrelated to China, the UK government would decry that as abusive and unacceptable. Yet that appears to be exactly what the UK is demanding.
I have wondered if these governments are really just completely misreading the amount of leverage they actually have. A great example is how Facebook decided to ban links to news sites rather than pay them.
Who would really come out on top if Apple publicly stated intent to pull out of the UK because their government was trying to globally violate everyone's privacy? Apple maybe loses a market, the politicians pushing Apple out probably become hated by everyone that has and likes Apple products (potentially repealing the whole thing), and Apple maybe even gets some small bump in international sales from people that look at it and go, "that's real commitment to privacy, I trust them even more."
I'm sure people will. In the past couple of years I have seriously considered stepping over to Apple for precisely that reason. They've been very hardline against breaching security when outside parties request them to do so, even making it harder by forcing iPhones to reboot and lock after a certain period of inactivity. If anything, I know that Apple will not freely hand over the keys to the kingdom.
It's just that I dislike everything else about their products that I haven't made the jump.
I made the switch last year, partially for this reason and don’t regret it. The other reason is that my day job involves a lot of troubleshooting and supporting janky technology and after I leave my office, I really just want my devices to work - particularly my phone. I was never going to install a new OS on my phone with all the potential issues that come with that.
It took a couple months for get used to everything, but honestly I haven’t found a single thing that I had configured in Android that I couldn’t do in iOS.
It's not about not having the ability to do things -although Firefox add-ons and ReVanced certainly influence the choice- it's that I do not like certain usability aspects of an iPhone.
I'm in the position that I frequently use both options, my personal phone is a Pixel and my work phone is an iPhone, and I just sincerely dislike the keyboard/autocorrect and general navigation on an iPhone. No matter what, I can't get it to feel natural. Though credit where credit is due, their face unlock is stellar making it easy for me to quickly pick up the iPhone for a quick internet search over the Pixel. But.. for a daily use device it needs to feel comfortable and natural. iPhone does not do that for me.
That means this is an internal ideological versus practical debate that so far sees me go for practical. But with Apple (reluctantly) opening up side loading and additional freedoms I may spring for one at some point.
Mirror: https://archive.is/ADrp6