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Chinese State Media Declares iPhone a Threat To National Security
MojoKid writes:
"When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden came forth last year with U.S. government spying secrets, it didn't take long to realize that some of the information revealed could bring on serious repercussions — not just for the U.S. government, but also for U.S.-based companies. The latest to feel the hit? None other than Apple, and in a region the company has been working hard to increase market share: China. China, via state media, has today declared that Apple's iPhone is a threat to national security — all because of its thorough tracking capabilities. It has the ability to keep track of user locations, and to the country, this could potentially reveal "state secrets" somehow. It's being noted that the iPhone will continue to track the user to some extent even if the overall feature is disabled. China's iPhone ousting comes hot on the heels of Russia's industry and trade deeming AMD and Intel processors to be untrustworthy. The nation will instead be building its own ARM-based "Baikal" processor.
Sigh. How sad it is -we humans- are the very reason why we cannot have nice things.
How much work do you do on an iphone that would be a threat to national security?
I thought something like Windows makes more sense.
Cutthroat competition often manifests this way in china. Cook has his work cut out for him..
they want — we find you.
find my iphone — no good.
Anything coming out of the U.S. is a threat to everybody else's national security.
Dear China: YOU BUILT IT. I think if it was a problem, you'd have mentioned something before now...
And do you really want to push the "national security" button on the iPhone, of all things?
How much money does manufacturing those beautiful little bits of Americana add to your bottom line?
I notice you're not complaining about Samsung, or any of your own local phones. How much less do they track people?
Agreed simply because of how many people are too busy staring at their phones and not paying attention to their surroundings to notice that a tank is about to run them over in Tiananmen Square!
I guess China doesn't want Apple's business anymore.
China is going to shortly release a state sponsored phone running their own OS and hardware that is totally "secure."
It's understandable that a nation like China would want to get in on the cell phone industry more deeply. Being able to insure a monopoly in China by scaring everyone away from the competition would create a huge, profitable industry internally. I just have a hard time taking what they're saying at face value.
And yes, before someone mentions it, I know the US does similar things for their own ends.
GM, Tesla, etc. all track you in real time...regardless of what country you may be in, so...is this just a push for domestic product? Remember that although Apple has a small percentage of the cellphone market in China, it has a large percentage of the smartphone market.
They're right, it _is_ a privacy/security hole. Most people just don't care. Apparently including me.
To be honest, I don't know much about the tracking feature, but it sounds like something where if one big corporation takes a hit, we'll see more push back from others. Make an example of them. (Please note, I own a lot of Apple products, I'm not anti-Apple by default, just on this issue.)
Some temporary or permanent haircut to their profits is the only way to reach them.
The Russian CPU is guaranteed to have more holes, if any of them are in fact flawed, though. Their citizens are nuts if they don't think so.
China is right: the iPhone is a gaping security hole.
I also have little doubt that their "solution" will also be a gaping security hole, except that it will be designed so only China's intelligence services can exploit it.
Bravo to China for holding Apple privacy accountable the way us Americans should.
If the US Government and it's ears the NSA are allowed to violate the 4th amendment,
Then what country can responsibly allow it's citizens to consume our "big brother in a box".
Let's say a hypothetical security service, such as the Norway Safety Alliance (NoSaal), wanted to collect intelligence by putting in a backdoor, secret registers, or something in a CPU manufactured by another hypothetical entity called Ingal, how would they do it?
What intelligence gathering capability could you include in a CPU that would 1) not interfere in the normal functionality of the PC, or otherwise be detectable by the end-user?
I've read that an entity like nosaal could read the electrical hum of the CPU from a distance to determine what it's doing, or maybe grab crypto keys that way.
But could Ingal actually put code or some other way dope their CPUs without anyone knowing?
And more importantly if that's the case, what could we do about?
This Sig does not Exist.
I tired to find the original source. Don't see it. Instead all we have is "
A report by broadcaster CCTV criticized the iPhone's "Frequent Locations" function for allowing users to be tracked and information about them revealed.
"This is extremely sensitive data," said a researcher interviewed by the broadcaster. If the data were accessed, it could reveal an entire country's economic situation and "even state secrets," the researcher said."
This is far, far from a government decree. The American equivalent would be an interview on PBS. Other than approving it to air, this has nothing to do with the government. I suspect most Chinese will see right through this, it may even help Apple sales.
NSA spies on everyone to "protect" us from tyrants that would spy on everyone. Makes sense. As a bonus the NSA has also done a fantastic job trimming down American tech industry jobs. Given the rampant unrepentant Orwellian spying surely every foreign government and corporation is eager to buy American technology products now.
Re The Russian CPU is guaranteed to ...... just be a cpu
A Russian cpu would be like a cpu made in China - a cpu that can do some computing tasks at a price and speed that is still useful without questions surrounding its import, a stop over when shipped as part of a larger system. Jobs, security, growth and a full understanding of every aspect of the cpu design.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
And then perhaps the Chinese will return the iPhone trademark to the stove company.
Have gnu, will travel.
Didn't Remington import for a number of years shotguns from a Russian company called Baikal? They were terrible guns for any use other than a club, poorly balanced and an action that made an I beam look flexible. But if you wanted a gun to club someone with, a Baikal was an awesome choice. It made a hellagood club - stout and durable. Thing was built like a tank.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Imagine Chinese have the ability not only to track location of every phone, but also to activate at will. In the past intelligence operations took year to find important targets, establish contacts, recruiting and learning about inner working of organizations of interests. In order to spy now all you need is a telephone # or email. That being said, would you be comfortable if you knew that Chinese have a capacity to listen not only the phone calls but also to record conversations near the phone at any time. Perhaps there are many professions where it does not matter what the telephone holder is talking about, but there are plenty of professions that can have a profound impact to security: military, intelligence, scientific areas for example. The truth is people are conditioned to assume that it is ok if someone listens, but it is also truth that every government have state secrets and China is no exception.
Here is my problem with Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Each vendor is using crowd sourced location / WiFi sniffing / map building excuses to collect location data from everyone. At least one vendor offers no ability to disable crowd sourcing without also preventing GPS from being used.
GPS ASIC's have advanced to the point where standard excuses (uses too much power, takes too long to get a fix, some indoor use) are no longer applicable. This appears to in no way be discouraging vendors from selecting shitty GPS components while propagating excuses which unnecessarily eat into data plans and upload all of your data.
Think of this from the Chinese perspective. Instead of everyone's location data being uploaded to Google or Apple ... what if it was all going to Huawei? Would US officials be comfortable with data about everyone's location constantly uploaded "anonymously" to Huawei?
I think we are all better off if vendors used more capable GPS chips in their handsets and location data is not constantly being uploaded to any single vendor for any reason by default.
The same also applies as a valid reason against us.
And for the record, from a security and privavy standpoint at least, I'll take an iPhone any day over an Android.
I'll take Android ASOP/custom rom over carrier shitware infested Android + Google play services or the iPhone any day.
Amazing how much longer battery lasts when your phone is not constantly violating your privacy and wracking up data usage for stupid reasons.
Apple represents a freaking quarter of the US economy. One company. Making locked-down toy computers.
We're living in a sci-fi dystopia.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Being able to track people really could have a negative effect on national security. For example one might determine locations where a lot of people with advanced degrees in physics or know to have special ability in subjects such as high powered lasers congregate. The workplaces of many of these folks could easily be national defense facilities. People know to specialize in encryption might also congregate at certain workplaces. Even purchasing certain books may lead to individuals that an enemy might want to target or even corrupt or kidnap.
Well...I'm not sure how hidden it is. We know that they are Apple surveilance devices, and we know that Apple will roll over if the Feds ask them to.
That said, I'd be surprised if there weren't zero-day exploits that haven't yet been made public. OTOH, the same is true for EVERY smart phone.
We've also be informed that the NSA records 80% of all voice conversations. (True? False? No way to check.) This plausibly means that they have all cell phone towers bugged. So they probably rarely need to bother Apple for the information.
Siri clearly requires that the phone know where you are to properly understand you. (Also to communicate with you.)
Etc.
So whether they were intentionally designed for the purpose of being a surveilance device or not (I lean towards not) the capabilities are there. It has also been reported that the microphones and cameras can be remotely activated without signal to the user. Bug or feature? Or did it start out as a bug, but has not been documented?
Whatever, what Apple has been accused of seems blatantly true. But perhaps a result of feature creep than of malign intentions.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Still waiting for my ARM Linux laptop with a good touchscreen.
Non-Chinese companies (sometimes thru Foxconn) employ Chinese workers to build parts (ex: processors) and/or entire devices (ex: phones). Some of the managers in the Chinese factories are Chinese. I'd guess the repair people, who repair damaged manufacturing equipment, are Chinese.
So they learn to staff and run a factory that manufactures electronic devices. Now that they know how to do so, why do they need American companies? They will start manufacturing the parts themselves, moving in the direction of making the entire device themselves. Once they can make their own devices, the government can require that their people buy those devices, only if made by they were made by Chinese companies. For "security reasons", of course.
I suggest Tim Cook remember that the Chinese market won't last forever. Sooner or later, Chinese companies will make phones, tablets, etc., and the Chinese people will buy those devices, not Apple devices.
Anything can happen in the future. We want phones now and cheap and they can make it now. If you care so much about the future and craft it so cautiously, even the smallest of changes in technological advancements will wreck all your future plans.
Technology moves so fast and China has always been one step behind, one version behind. Doesn't mean they will ever catch up unless they invest heavily in R&D and actually catch with the big boys. By the time they learn something, it has been improved on and moved on. Sure, they can catch the low margin markets in mature technology but never in high margin technology.
On the other hand, maybe they will catch up and make competing products. Are you really scared of a little competition? On the other hand, technology will move even faster with a larger consumer base and a larger number of companies making cutting edge products.
Not a threat to security. More of a threat to global mental health.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
because iMaps had citizens crashing into military buildings.
Table-ized A.I.
sorry china.
you infected yourself with american popular culture.
there is no cure.
now buy our shitty hollywood action flicks by the billions.
next up, beer and weed.
and we just started selling the mustang in china, with the v8.
Not only that, there is the problem that nearly everyone chooses to ignore, the insecure baseband system and processor. One of the biggest moves China could make would be to both design and certify a processor and a baseboand OS. Then they could just run their own version of Replicant or whatever on the other processor while knowing that the 'hidden' part of the system is also clean. It's the certification that is a big barrier for most teams but China could squash it easily.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Too frickin right it's a National Intelligence Risk.
"When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden came forth last year with U.S. government spying secrets, it didn't take long to realize that some of the behavior of the U.S. government revealed could bring on serious repercussions"
China government gives free iPhone to all citizens!
I had the opposite experience. CyanogenMod and AKOP used battery at such a rate my phone actually got warm when sitting on the desk doing nothing. That combined with crashing once a day or so made me go back to the carrier's firmware.
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
Do us a favor China, keep them eh? Dump them on the homes of the executives of FoxConn and blow open the doors of their slavery castle.
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.