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Apple's Fight With US Over Privacy Enters a New Round (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on Bloomberg: Apple Inc.'s fight over privacy with the U.S. isn't over yet, even after the government dropped a demand for the company's help in accessing a California shooter's iPhone because someone else found a way to crack it. The U.S. said it'll keep fighting to get the company's help in getting data off a phone in Brooklyn, New York, that belonged to a drug dealer because Apple provided assistance in accessing such devices earlier. In a court filing Friday, the government said it's going ahead with an appeal of a judge's order denying its request for Apple's help. The battle between the world's most valuable tech company and the U.S. over encryption and data privacy has sparked a national debate, with dozens of companies and organizations siding with Apple, while law enforcement has generally taken the government's side.
... continues!
.. all politicians and LEOs can turn over all their private communications and information FIRST...
Apple provided assistance in accessing such devices earlier.
this took place largely through secret FISA court orders and wasnt a huge problem until the FBI pulled the wig off the fat lady. Apple would love to continue secretly unlocking phones, but its no longer an option when americas darling tech company has been directly implicated in bed with the US intelligence community. the biggest threat to the cloud based sharing model of internetworked gadgets and services that companies like Apple offer is the inability to keep the devices secure and away from prying eyes. It doesnt matter how many surveys come out declaring $countrymen dont care about privacy, the proof is in the pudding. Apple understands losing this mark of privacy could mean the death of the brands top sellers.
the government said it's going ahead with an appeal of a judge's order denying its request for Apple's help.
thats fine. thats how bureaucracy and legal processes work. this is a win for everyone because it didnt happen in a secret court.
The battle between the world's most valuable tech company and the U.S. over encryption and data privacy has sparked a national debate
theres no debate. the government wanted apple to cave in and erode the first amendment by unlocking a dead mans phone to prove a case that was already solved. this effort was very transparent to anyone paying even cursory attention. Apple fought back with a powerful attorney and in order to avoid setting a precedent for losing a first amendment case, the government pulled the legislative equivalent of a teenager scoffing and mumbling what-ever under her breath.
with dozens of companies and organizations siding with Apple
correction, with google pussy-footing in under pressure and other companies wringing their hands like spinsters at a bar fight. the only real opposition other than Apple was the FSF.
there is no new round. Whatever chicanery the government used to crack the phone has now been its own killing blow. Apple will do as the borg, and in a few iterations of IOS you'll soon see a phone that is not only unsucceptable to the present exploit, but cannot become succeptable to third party intervention without the sand of brute force time.
Good people go to bed earlier.
So when is Apple going to just move over seas to a place that is not so fucked up?. Hell they have enough cash to buy a small country.
Why do we never hear stories about Google fighting the FBI to protect Android users' privacy and right to encryption? Is it because Google is complacent with the government, or is it because Android phones are so easy to crack that the FBI doesn't even bother to ask?
There should be no debate. The state has no right to compel "assistance", any more than it has for a confession, from anybody outside its own employees, politicians, military, bureaucrats, etc.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Apple should find a face-saving way of caving in. It's either that or being publicly defeated. You cannot fight the US government, not in this day and age, and not expect to be crushed. Apple may believe its corporate status can shield it from the might of the State but openly defying the government is simply foolish. Had they not thrown that charade about "privacy" that the general public does not care about, they could have reached an agreement in secret and gotten away, but they stood their ground. Ill-advised in the extreme. The next years will see a crackdown over the internet that nobody ever thought could be possible. A word of advice: if anyone out there is developing cryptographic or anonymizing tools, stop right now and delete all your work. It will be used as evidence against you. It's not "shilling" or anything naive minds might think. It's simply being practical.
It is more like Apple 's fight to be paid for selling out customers and their data. Citizen4 already showed the Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and others were being paid by the US taxpayer to sell out their customer base in NSA PRISM.
I'm waiting for tha passage of the TPP so Apple can sue the US Government for the 'damages' to it's business caused by being forced to 'unlock' iPhones using the provisoins of the TPP that allow for business governement dispute resolutions in the oh so business friendly private 'courts' of the TPP.
I believe I have a right to take and fully encrypt my dick pics without worry of a backdoor into my privacy.
Give me Liberty!
Cheers, Glen
They should require escrow keys -- after all, it is far more important to catch a drug lord than risk falling down into permanent panopticon 1984 tyranny, with a boot on a human face, forever.
Well, we know the US will never fall because history shows, wait, it doesn't show shit about democracies falling, in fact it shows they always do.
But even if it doesn't, China and Russia won't abuse the exact same power. Wait, they already do. Well, sux2b them.
But it is worth the risk to catch a drug lord, so let's risk all future freedom for all eternity by letting government put their hands in our underpants at will.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The way to fight Apple, Google et al. is to make Encryption, a Capital Offense, punishable by means up to and including the Death Penalty!
So, if "Mr." Timothy Donald Cook wants to be a Queer, in solitary lock-up, then there is a cell sized just for him. :-)
Ha ha
I would rather see tech companies help than let the feds develop a solution they can use freely. And you know once the magic algorithm to crack the encryption exists it will inevitably go wild. If apple would provide a recovery service it controls it might slow down the mass breaching of data that is surely coming.