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Polish MP Returns iPad Citing Lack of Control

Posted by Unknown on from the cloud-is-watching-you dept.

rysiek writes "Polish MP and spokesperson for one of Polish political parties Dariusz Joski returned his state-issued iPad, citing lack of control (Google-translated). Polish Free and Open Source Software Foundation (of Anti-ACTA fame) offered (free of charge, of course) to help him choose, install and configure Linux on his laptop, including setting-up disk encryption. We are still waiting for an answer from the MP." Another concern of his appears to have been a lack of security regarding communications with other government officials.

14 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... by FalconZero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but this story to me reads as a "Man does not like thing." fluff piece.

    Can anyone enlighten me?

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    Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
    1. Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... by PCK · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well as a politician I'm pretty sure he had one eye on the free publicity for him this would cause, seems to have worked I'd say.

    2. Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the big story is that there still exist people who don't know about the lack of control. On Slashdot we all know; in the mainstream most people don't.

      Obviously the guy cares about being The master of his computer, knowing who has access to his imap password, etc. Had he known how bad this particular personal computer would be about such things, he would have avoided it from the beginning. But he didn't.

      This suggests to me that more educating of the public, could help everyone a lot. People ought to know about iOS' problems before, not after. Finding out after is why Apple is doing so well (as Microsoft before them), and at the public's expense since control issues are zero-sum games.

      This guy should never have been put into this situation where he has to get rid of the already-paid-for junk. But unlike many problems, we actually have the power to prevent this one, simply by spreading the word.

      Apple-bashing isn't sufficient; you have to say why you're Apple-bashing. Explain the problem enough, and eventually people won't need things bashed anymore, because the products' defects will scream at the prospective customers for themselves. They'll see that some products aren't advertised as serving their users or as being secure, and realize "oh right, that stuff matters, and it's suspicious when the manufacturer weasels about it."

      There's no reason we can't get the state of the art in security (who has access to your email?) at least back to as well as it was 20 years ago (which was pretty bad, but I'm only comparing it to 2012 so the bar is absurdly low). All it takes it getting the public to think that way.

    3. Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... by bhagwad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A hammer is a clearly specialized instrument. A computer is not. Moroever, there's nothing stopping you from using a hammer for anything you care to find a use for. With computing devices these days, customers are ARTIFICIALLY restricted from doing stuff. And that is what I find offensive because the open culture of general purpose computing is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.

  2. Lack of control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The MP probably doesn't realize that Apple has plenty of control over all iPads.

    1. Re:Lack of control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the contrary. He seems to have realized exactly that - and so he returned the thing. Ipads are fine for surfing and "family use", but I wouldn't trust one to keep state secrets. For that, you use a machine where you can inspect all the software - and you preferably have some trusted experts to set it up. The man is just being sensible.

    2. Re:Lack of control? by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It does not look from that article that it has been "ruled uncrackable", except by NeoWin. They seem to assume that because AES is "uncrackable", and because Apple claims that they do not store the key, their implementation must therefore be uncrackable / without flaws.

      Anyone who has watched security for any length of time knows that "hypothetically uncrackable" is a lot different than "practically secure". Maybe they leak key details; maybe they dont properly santize RAM before the iPad powers down (and therefore it may be susceptable to a cold boot attack).

      Until some respected crypto expert looks at the thing, any declarations about security on the IOS are worthless marketing tools.

  3. sounds like he might've had a sentient tablet by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the Google-translated story, a quotation:

    "Admin has access to everything. Tablet I am"

    Sounds ominous indeed.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  4. Re:Ridiculous idea in the first place by falcon5768 · · Score: 5, Informative

    iOS 3+ is full disk encrypted. http://www.neowin.net/news/ios-encryption-is-impossible-to-crack-by-nsas-standards

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  5. Re:not the first story by jedrek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's that there's no mouse and keyboard or printing support (as far as I know)

    You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers that work with the iPad, here is a roundup of keyboard/case solutions for the iPad from The Verge. I'm not going to search for mouse setups for a multi-touch device for various reasons.

    You know what really bugs me about your post? Since the first time I logged into slashdot, I've been reading about cases of FUD working against Linux and Open Source Software. Now I'm seeing Linux and Android fanboys with their heads up their asses, spreading the same kind of FUD. "Oh, as far as I know, it doesn't work with external keyboards." sure brings me back to the times of, "It seems to me that if it was good, they'd charge money for it."

    It's kinda sad that Apple hates on Linux then actually released a product that's less functional, less flexible, and less compatible with other software than Linux.

    Apple hates on Linux? Linux isn't even on Apple's radar. What they've made is a product that's more functional and flexible than a phone, while being considerably more portable than a laptop. They weren't trying to create a new laptop, they were aiming for a product between laptops and phones. Most people have extremely low demands of their computers. Email, Skype, a browser and a photo editing application. Hell, my girlfriend is technical enough to fix her own router, but I haven't seen her do anything on her laptop that she couldn't do on a tablet in the four months we've been living together.

  6. Ah yes, Poland by Xtense · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The land I was born in, the land that I grew up in, the land that I live in and the land that I love... ...with some of the worst (or best, depending on your definition of the word) politicians I've ever seen. You have to understand - they don't use those iPads for anything other than browsing porn ( http://www.komputerswiat.pl/media/2012/187/2456339/porno-tablety-sejm-1.jpg ) or funnyjunk-like equivalents. They're wasting money - and they're wasting our money, because the iPads were state-funded. We're letting them do that - and there is nothing we can do to change that.

    This isn't just some generic "politics == stupid" sentiment - this is a matter of analyzing at least the major decisions of the last 100 years and coming to the conclusion that the decisionmakers are idiots. It would be at least comforting to know that the voters are aware of it, but no dice - politics in Poland are either a taboo subject or restricted entirely to the Internet - and we all know how debating on the Internet works. I can honestly tell you that no camp currently registered for voting into the Sejm (the Senate 2.0) is worth voting for. The two major parties, PO (centrist/right) and PiS (right/national) are so deep in shitslinging between them that they lost focus on running the country, which breeds tons of discontent and lots of potential for corruption, both internal and external - they were both caught in the act, too. The alternative parties aren't much better: SLD (left/social) are basically repurposed commies from the last system and notorious for their mob connections, Ruch Palikota (liberal) is led by a huge idiot who changes his views like a goddamn flag, and UPR (left social/right economy) is helmed by a guy who is first to rip off "working" solutions from other countries with no regard for both current possibilities or needs of Poland.

    This situation is perfect for PR however, since voting usually is not between "the best candidates" but "the least evil", so it just takes the right amount of spin to completely ruin a party's chances.

    But it starts to show. Voter participation is dropping with each term - which in the short term is very bad since it leads to fringe voting, but in the long run demonstrates that we're starting to get tired of this shit.

    It crossed my mind to post this anonymously to be honest, since Polish politics are a matter of very heated (and very vulgar) debate on the Polish-speaking Internet, but, ah well.

    --
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
  7. Local IT control, _not_ Apple. by Moskit · · Score: 4, Informative

    Guy lost his gov-issued iPad.
    Local IT admin said he can recover all his data and burn on CD, so MP doesn't need to worry it's lost. Data including his _private_ emails that was on iPad.

    This is what set him off to return the iPad. Not Apple control.

    Original iPad wasn't found he bought a replacement one from private money and returned it. Good guy!

    As a form of protest he posted "Admins have access to everything!" on his Facebook before returning device. 300 of government officials (out of 460) use such iPads for work.

  8. Re:not the first story by Desler · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.apple.com/ipad/accessories/

    Apple Wireless Keyboard
    The incredibly thin Apple Wireless Keyboard uses Bluetooth technology, which makes it compatible with iPad. And you’re free to type wherever you like — with the keyboard in front of your iPad or on your lap.

    AirPrint

    This took 2 seconds to find. It's amazing how low the bar for 'insightful' and 'nformative' mods is these days. Apparently all you have to do is make ignorant anti-Apple statements.

  9. Re:not the first story by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Informative

    You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers [apple.com] that work with the iPad

    The vast vast majority do NOT, unless you do some crazy hacks to set up an AirPrint service on your laptop to make it act like a print server for IOS. There are literally thousands of printers out there, and most are not AirPrint compatible.