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China Passes Law Requiring Tech Firms To Hand Over Encryption Keys (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes: Apple may have said that it opposes the idea of weakening encryption and providing governments with backdoors into products, but things are rather different in China. The Chinese parliament has just passed a law that requires technology companies to comply with government requests for information, including handing over encryption keys.
Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the controversial law is the Chinese government's attempt to curtail the activities of militants and political activists. China already faces criticism from around the world not only for the infamous Great Firewall of China, but also the blatant online surveillance and censorship that takes place. This latest move is one that will be view very suspiciously by foreign companies operating within China, or looking to do so.
Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the controversial law is the Chinese government's attempt to curtail the activities of militants and political activists. China already faces criticism from around the world not only for the infamous Great Firewall of China, but also the blatant online surveillance and censorship that takes place. This latest move is one that will be view very suspiciously by foreign companies operating within China, or looking to do so.
Please stop being the UK govs role model...
Just like the USA distanced itself from eugenics (such as the mandatory sterilization of people with mental disabilities) when it got popular with the Nazis, maybe China demanding encryption keys will get some American politicians to back off of the idea.
So tech companies will have at least 2 product lines.
a. for everywhere EXCEPT China
b. for no place BUT China
What will happen to this law once Chinese tech is not accepted anywhere except inside China?
And how many Chinese companies will be able to produce anything from category "a"? Remember, there is a LOT of tech that is manufactured in China but still belongs to non-Chinese corporations.
Wait, if the Chinese are doing it, doesn't that mean that it's an evil commie tactic that no God-fearing American would ever even suggest using?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
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If Apple wants to continue selling devices in China (which is a needed market for Apple, as the US market is becoming saturated), then Apple will comply with the laws of China.
It's as simple as that.
Apple should comply with this request, it is actually a very good thing for the US (and terrible for china). By creating this backdoor, China is painting a huge target on the server(s) that store these 'master keys'. Every foreign intelligence agency in the world will want in and they will get in. Someone will forget to check a password buffer when coding it, or someone with an admin password will be presented with embarrassing pictures, and then wham! every western Intel agency will have access to the phone data for all the important people in China. This data will need to be used by so many people that it should be trivial to compromise someone with a master key.
Apple will then be complying with China's laws, and can keep raking in the bucks by selling them easy to compromise phones and personal gadgetry. Nothing requires them to then cripple their phones in other parts of the world, which they will presumably not do so they can claim that they have a secure platform as a sales point every else. Win Win.
Of course, the person getting fucked is the average Chinese person. They are being ass-reamed even harder by the government stooges, but perhaps this will be the thing that finally pisses the populace off enough to finally rise up and start hanging all the communist stooges running the country.
I bet the NSA is having a massive Christmas circle jerk over this one. Their job just became a million times easier...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!