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Apple Is Building An Online Portal For Police To Make Data Requests (cnet.com)
In a letter last Tuesday to Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Apple said it is working on an online portal for law enforcement officials to submit and track requests for data and obtain responses from the company. Apple also said it's "creating a dedicated team to help train law enforcement officials around the world in digital forensics," reports CNET. From the report: The letter, seen by CNET, addresses recommendations made in a report issued earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) regarding cybersecurity and the "digital evidence needs" of law enforcement agencies. Apple said in the letter that it's eager to adopt the report's recommendations, including making upgrades to its law enforcement training program. This includes developing an online training module for police that mirrors Apple's current in-person training, according to the letter and to details on the company's website.
"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."
"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."
How they did it before? They have no idea how to work with the police?
They didn't have any data to share.
Law enforcement has more requests for WH criminal data than from all other Apple users combined.
will master key unlock code requests be put it?
Stop with the FUD, Chicken Little. Unless the crooked cop has a search warrant, he's not getting shit. Why are you trying to scare the shit out of everyone? If you think Apple allowing the police to request data is a bad idea, then it needs to be addressed legislatively.
I mean, seriously, have we not learned anything about the government's, or any government's ability to abuse their power?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
It's almost like we have been here before.
So if I manage to hack po-dunk police force's systems, I can data straight from Apple?
thwarting the ebil alex jones and escorting the fuzz into your iphone.
I think this will mean that at least U.K and U.S. authorities can just surf in and take what they want. You don't do thorough inspection on the legal basis of the request when you open a "service portal".
Fuck you Apple.
So sick and tired of these companies helping the crooks.
For example - someone steals your phone or device? Good luck getting Apple to cooperate with you.
I guess it's part of the globalist free pass agenda. Kindof like letting illegals drive without license, insurance, etc. and not ticketing or arresting them.
...Is becoming the year where corporations decided to start playing chicken with the world. "Go ahead. Dump our products and platforms. We dare you. Watch as we invade your privacy anyway and sell your data to the highest and lowest bidders. Watch as we turn that data against you as we de-platform you, censor you and gag you. Go on... Appeal to the government, if you think that will help. We sell them data, too, and they're just as addicted to it as everyone else. We're now training your police officers. We'll soon be driving your cars. You won't be able to go anywhere without us. We already control what you see and hear... Just try to get a bank account or a job or start a business without us. You think you're safe from us using alternate, independent platforms and services? We'll just get the credit unions to stop transferring you money entirely. Even Elon Musk isn't above personally cutting off the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens... Watch as we lobby government after government to go cashless. Giving us control of ALL of your money... Watch as we put meaningless sensors, microphones and cameras in everything. Want a new 4k TV? We want to watch you in your living room. Need more hard drive space on your tablet? Let us carry that data for you on a cloud. We promise we parse and save everything. Just try to live without us. We are the very air you breathe."
http://127.0.0.1/
Most other SNPs have web portals for LE requests, this is to streamline it for Apple and for LE. The web portal doesn't give the requester the information, so no fear there, it serves a different purpose. In order to get the user data, judicial authorization still has to be provided and once they have that, it will be forwarded to the requesting Agency / Officer.
The potential to abuse X is persistent - it always exists. The risks to protect the public and aid LE with investigations outweighs any privacy concern... ultimately, it's pretty simple - if you didn't do anything, LE won't bother with your data as they have enough on the go with actual investigations. If you did do something and they have judicial authorization, then they should get to your data.
Why scare people? Because it has happened before. Cops looking up details of celebrities because they are bored, or details on their ex' new boyfriend to see if there's anything that can ruin that relationship, or in case of bent cops: details on cases having to do with their criminal friends. Some of these cops have been caught because there was good (fine grained) authorisation mechanism in place, a detailed audit trail, and alerts on suspicious activities. But a lot of these systems don't have any of that. So: we scare people so they demand that sufficient security and monitoring is put in place.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Its a request system, so instead of filing a request by paper it can be done online. This will save Apple $ as well as the tax payer.
However, by it being a request system, it is NOT an access system, so no ones personal data will be at greater risk. This is not a rubber stamp and revolving door system.
The forensics will be beyond idiots like Arpaio, it will be used by the people doing digital forensics anyway. My guess if that Apple is trying to improve their skills in "other areas" so they won't be forced to create a backdoor which will be worse for everyone.
... particularly with the current president and his repeatedly-stated intention to abuse law enforcement as a tool with which to attack his political enemies. I wonder why Tim Cook flip-flopped and gave in to the thuggery.
Imagine all the people...
fuck off ivan
That link "the company's website" is nothing more than an affiliate link: "https://www.apple.com/ ?afid=p231%7Ccamref%3A1011l7vU&cid=AOS-US-AFF-PHG"
Slashdot editors are getting dirtier every day.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
AC recall PRISM. Collect it all.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
INB4 a link to Goatse Guy.
Have gnu, will travel.
Oh my! The stupidium-powered trolls are out in force today? Or is it for a religious violation, heresy against the Apple?
In theory, I own Apple. Both a device and the company. My recent experience with the device has actually been surprisingly positive and they rounded the terms of the warranty in my favor. The dividends? Not so much.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
If you want to play with the trolls, then you can clarify things by quoting the source. Pretty sure I'm not the only one to set the ACs to low visibility. I thought you were talking to me (because of the subject from my troll-modded post), but I couldn't figure out the linkage to any of my content--because there wasn't any. You made me look at the AC and now I need to use more eye drops.
Even better if you stop playing with trolls. Abuse of anonymity is on the list of major problems with Slashdot. I think #1 is still the broken moderation system, but my new #3 is depleted stupidium. Not a shortage, but just depletion of the amusing isotopes.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Sherriff Joe wasn't crooked by my standards. Quite the opposite, he stood up for what he believed and felt was right in the face of legislation and lots of political pressure. Now I don't agree with his politics at all but I do admire his willingness to buck the system and make a stand even at the cost of his job and possible jail time for contempt. If only there were politicians with the same degree of integrity, what ever their political beliefs were the US would be a better place.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Can't decide if you're a troll or I'm just having trouble following your reasoning.
Arpaio was supposed to be a police officer of some sort, but he felt he was some sort of judge, jury, and executioner. Are you saying that he wouldn't use this new interface to get evidence against his favorite criminals? If so, I might agree, since evidence scarcely mattered to Arpaio.
Or are you saying that criminals are okay as long as they are sincere? In the latter case, I think we're just quibbling about the scope of political crimes, though it is absolutely clear #PresidentTweety is making political hay out of Arpaio's politics. Also I absolutely disagree with your claim. I don't care how sincere a criminal is, whether he's a religious nut or bank robber who sincerely knows where the money is.
Or maybe you have some completely different case in mind? Or maybe you're just a troll and I am just confused about the possibility of a rational discussion? (I referenced my OP incorrectly in another part of this discussion. I should have said "troll-sock-puppet-suppressed comment".)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Whenever I see the government wanting access to our emails, diaries, social media, etc. it makes me wonder, how on earth did the police ever do it's job before smartphones? Is the crime rate increasing because people can instant message each other or secure their diary entries or archives of emails? What am I missing here. In the past when someone got murdered, what evidence was used to find and convict them that today is inaccessible because of Apple's technology?
Or is all this "we need everyone's data" only for cyber crimes?
I don't know that standing up for the right to have your local police enforce a strictly federal law, by pulling over every Hispanic they see for no reason and demanding citizenship papers, is something to admire. Especially when a court tells you to stop the racial profiling. You must be the type who defend the cops who bravely shoot little dogs wagging their tail while using a SWAT team to serve a pot warrant at the wrong address, or valiantly defend their life by back shooting an unarmed fleeing suspect.
Ah yes. There is always an apple apologist idiot that want the criminals to have hi-tech equipment and thinks the gumshoes should have a pencil and a notepad to do their jobs.
Have you lived in Maricopa County?
I'm guessing you haven't. I too respected Sheriff Joe before I moved there. I admired his tough-on-crime stance and thought he was a good guy like you do, but Sheriff Joke and "integrity" are two polar opposites..
When I moved to the PHX area I found out the national news about him was just his publicity machine and he wasn't what I thought.
My main concern at first wasn't even that he's racist. He was corrupt as hell and much of what he did was publicity stunts. He cost us (taxpayers) millions in lawsuits for violating people's rights. You can whine about lawsuits all you want, but this is the United States. Don't violate people's rights and there may be fewer lawsuits.
His publicity machine was epic. What other Sheriff in the US is or was nationally known? That black guy from Milwaukee? Yeah, I can remember him, but not his name.
And he's mostly known for being a black guy who supports Trump....and having a few people die in the jails he presides over.
Yeah, David Clarke. 3 inmates and one newborn baby all dead in his jail and yet most people if they even know who he is don't know that.
And to preempt you from saying anything about me coddling criminals, the vast majority of people in jail have not yet been convicted.
--
My own personal conspiracy theory: Sheriff Joke kept getting re-elected because of Snowbirds from other states who probably voted in both AZ and their home state. Immigrants are a problem in AZ, but it's not the ones coming from the south. (it's all those people from California and Texas and Michigan and all those other states! Yeah, I think I just included myself as part of the problem.)
Just have them telnet into that.
I would like to suggest a system for Apple to implement. It would consist of a series of standardized steps to ensure police forces get all the help they deserve as they try to turn enterprises built and paid for by others to their own ends.
Completion of each stage of the process would initiate the start of the next, ensuring a seamless, orderly progression which would service the police most efficiently. These steps in the system I'm proposing, in order, would start with " B egin ", when the basic contact information from the requesting police officer is accepted, recorded and verified. Next would be " L earn ", which would include an extremely lengthy, comprehensive questionnaire allowing the officer to define the force's needs and expectations. When this questionnaire has been successfully completed, reviewed and verified, the next step, " O ffer " would be initiated. This is when the company would tell the police force what it was able to do to accommodate its needs. Then would come " W ork ", when the actual process of informing customers that the police needed some of their private information would commence, and the company would assemble all the data the thankful citizens provided.
After a pause to ensure all relevant information had been provided, the next phase, " M anage " would commence. This would consist of another lengthy questionnaire to be filled out by the police, when they would let the company know whether their needs had been met. If not, at this point an actual live interaction between a company official and a police representative might have to occur. Police expectations could be managed and redefined to ensure that they are reasonable and achievable within a democratic context. Finally there would be " E xit ", when the police force representative would fill out another questionnaire that would allow the company to judge its effectiveness at meeting the needs of the government's information-gathering initiatives.
For efficiency, and to let various security agencies know what they should expect, the first initial of each step of my process would form the acronym introducing the portal.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
The AC had legitimate objections against your point; these arguments come up every time in debates on privacy. Better to address than ignore these. Though I do wish Slashdot would do away with AC comments completely.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
1) Several years ago I worked at a company that did hosting for the police. Think Windows NT. They frequently asked to do a reset of our servers. To do this, they send a fax. One day the fax was not readable, so I called for verification.
The person that had signed the fax was not working at that department for a few years. So I asked them from then on they need to have the fax signed AND dated by the person sending the fax, otherwise it would be seen as fraude and falsification of forms. So yeah, I treatend the police.
2) A different department always tried to get data from us about customers without a warrent. Well, fuck you. No warrent, no info.
If they are doing this automatic, you can bet that the logins will be floating around and that they WILL find a way to get data. It also means that others will be able to get that data.
So to make this possible, the judge needs to make the warrent somehow available for Apple over a secure connection. Technically this could be done. I see this done for financial information in Belgium all the time. No issues.
However this should NOT be done for Apple or any company. This should be done for every company and accessible to every company that wants it AND it should be free or cheap with the absolutely needed chacks in place that no company can read the one from others.
Also that no other police department will have access to the data.
It would also mean that this is a nation wide system. That means that all judges and policedepartments and companies need to be connected to the same system.
Technically I see no issues. Bit of SSL and XML and you are done. To make it, I would forsee a failed system after 10 years of building and a few rich consultants.
And even then it will encourage rubberstamping and it will not be secure due to the fact that 90% of hacking is social enineering.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I don't agree, but I admit that I only glanced at the AC comment, so maybe I missed something. Remember that I was only there because I read a reply that seemed to be addressed to me based on the Subject: (which I had written). His reply seemed unrelated to anything that I had written, so if the AC was relevant and "legimate" (though I'm unsure what you mean by that), then I don't feel it was transmitted into the discussion. Nor have you carried forward any of those points, assuming they were important.
On the AC topic, I don't actually care, though I do think that anonymity is abused in general on the Internet and in particular on Slashdot. I would prefer to reward people for constructive behaviors, as described in MEPR-related suggestions.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Good thing they got in bed with the chinks... its had no negative consequences!
Why scare people? Because it has happened before. Cops looking up details of celebrities because they are bored, or details on their ex' new boyfriend to see if there's anything that can ruin that relationship, or in case of bent cops: details on cases having to do with their criminal friends. Some of these cops have been caught because there was good (fine grained) authorisation mechanism in place, a detailed audit trail, and alerts on suspicious activities. But a lot of these systems don't have any of that. So: we scare people so they demand that sufficient security and monitoring is put in place.
I’ve taken a shit in a soap dispenser before, so add those to the list of things you don’t trust because of stuff you read online.
Training programs for LEOs is a proven failed endeavor. They can't even figure out that a diabetic blowing a 3+% BAC (in the coma / death range) on a breathalizer while telling them they are sober is in fact a diabetic and that is a thing with ketone levels.
The AC had legitimate objections against your point; these arguments come up every time in debates on privacy. Better to address than ignore these. Though I do wish Slashdot would do away with AC comments completely.
You’d think anonymity v. free speech would be entirely off limits in a thread about how much we trust the gubmint with our privacy. I mean, wow, you went there, so uh to be clear you were arguing for the pro or anti police side?
Look, police are human, they have jobs to do, they’re usually paid OK, but have to see things regularly you never want to see in your entire life.
My personal approach to authority having good intelligence is it ranks faaaaaaar below their actions. People don’t just decide to do bad things on good intelligence, they’re always going to do bad things. If you trust in the system we have in place to limit THAT, then the rest is easy. I want good cops with good information, withholding information because of bad cops is silly, and doesn’t do anything to the bigger problem.
And there's always a cop/spy apologist idiot who thinks we all ought to share all our secrets with law enforcement, usually without even knowing we've done so.
He violated the rights of inmates who were already in prison, leaving them in tents with temperatures up to 145F, feeding them only twice a day, fed them discarded food that couldn't be sold,
He closed 75% of sex crimes without proper investigation. The rapes of 13 and 14 year old girls were closed because the suspects didn't want to be questioned.
Another 13 year old who was repeatedly raped by her uncle had her case closed for four years after the officers lied about the rape kit results (semen was found, they told the parents it wasn't) and refused to get a blood sample that the lab asked for. After they were forced to re-open the case and get the blood sample, it was a match. The girl endured four more years of sexual assault that could have been prevented and the county settled that lawsuit for $3.5 million.
When given $600k to add more detectives to investigate child abuse, none were added and they couldn't explain where the money went.
He targeted political opponents and journalists repeatedly, filing false charges against them that were all either rejected by judges or dropped before the judges could reject them. This cost the county millions more in settlements.
He was found to have violated election law, but got away with just a $150k fine which his campaign paid.
He misspent over $100 million in a 5 year period, redirecting funds intended for detention facilities to pay for things like fishing trips and trips to Disneyland, stays at luxury hotels, a staff party at a local amusement park, etc.
And there are many, many more examples of Sherrif Joe being an absolute piece of shit.
And somehow that doesn't make him crooked by your standards? What does he have to do to seem croocked? Fuck a dead baby and eat its heart in front of you?