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BlackBerry CEO 'Disturbed' By Apple's Hard Line On Encryption (theinquirer.net)
An anonymous reader writes: BlackBerry CEO John Chen said he is "disturbed" by Apple's tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm's attitude is harmful to society. Earlier this year, Chen said in response to Apple resisting the government's demands to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters: "We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good." During BlackBerry's Security Summit in New York this week, Chen made several more comments about Apple's stance on encryption. "One of our competitors, we call it 'the other fruit company,' has an attitude that it doesn't matter how much it might hurt society, they're not going to help," he said. "I found that disturbing as a citizen. I think BlackBerry, like any company, should have a basic civil responsibility. If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out." He did say there was a lot of "nonsense" being reported about BlackBerry and its approach to how it handles user information. "Of course, there need to be clear guidelines. The guidelines we've adopted require legal assets. A subpoena for certain data. But if you have the data, you should give it to them," he said. "There's some complete nonsense about what we can and can't do. People are mad at us that we let the government have the data. It's absolute garbage. We can't do that." Chen also warned that mandatory back doors aren't a good idea either, hinting at the impending Investigatory Powers Bill. "There's proposed legislation in the U.S., and I'm sure it will come to the EU, that every vendor needs to provide some form of a back door. That is not going to fly at all. It just isn't," he said.
Glad their insecure piece of shit platform is nearly dead
"We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good."
I guess Mr. Chen and Mr. Cook have very different ideas of what the greater good is.
Blackberry's CEO is just positioning itself as the cocksucker for governments.
Anything for some more contracts, I guess. They need whatever they can get.
John Chen is a bit like gun prohibitionists. It doesn't matter if government requires manufacturers to install back doors. Eventually someone will develop encryption software without a back door - and government will still not have a key.
Outlawing guns or encryption guarantees that only outlaws will possess those things.
Apple is smart enough to realize this. They understand that throwing their users under the bus now will not make us safer later.
I wish they could have gotten the CEO of Pan Am, Zenith, or RCA to speak up on the subject.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
And they use to have such a good rep... oh well, someone flush the toilet.
Apple did what they should do for encryption. They refused to release a signed version of their firmware that would allow any phone with that firmware to be brute force cracked. Even if they took the actual phone into their possession and loaded the special firmware themselves only on that phone it would mean tens of thousands of requests from law enforcement and courts all over the world. They couldn't say no to any of them. A logistical nightmare that doesn't make Apple any money; break even at best but with lots of negative press.
It's a no win situation. And you can be sure that further into the future they will endeavor to make it impossible for even them to crack their own phones no matter what firmware the device uses.
Didn't you hear? The USA just bought a ton of apple phones for military special forces.
"I guess I won't be using this Blackberry any more." - Everyone in 2008
1) BB just died with Mr. Chen's comments.
2) Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that Apple has integrity*. Not a huge fanboi, it pains me terribly to say that.
*on the matter of encryption/privacy.
Not hard to say you never gave the decryption key to BES when you've pushed out a software update that also sends a plain-text copy to the powers that be.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Chen's argument is also an irrelevant straw man ,
Apple has provided all relevant data it has when presented with a valid warrant.
However, by increasing use of PKI & end to end encryption ,Apple has been moving towards a point where that data it has is getting less and less, and may eventually be so little it's irrelevant to asking for.
What Apple has resisted is reversing that direction.
His argument is politically appealing to factions within government who want back doors, but as government, would you want YOUR devices to have a back door that a foreign government could access on presenting a warrant ?
Apples position is essentially, we want to sell you a phone - access to your data is between you and who ever is asking for it.
Blackberry's position is they want to sell you a phone, and then will give your data to whomever it is politically expedient to do so.
I'll take the "other fruit company" thank you.