Apple Removes Cloud Encryption Feature From UK After Backdoor Order
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"Backdoor order", hehe.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/apple-removes-cloud-encryption-feature-150315095.html
tldr;
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Apple data storage, has features for complete encryption
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UK (Starmer, Labour) want world-wide backdoor
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Apple said, sorry no, we can't do that, but what we can do is, pull the security features for UK users. Congratulations.
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@blablarg18
it's effectively the same thing, unless you allow for the magical thinking required to let only the good guys use the backdoor. -
@tnar I wouldn't say "good guys" but.... if Apple made a back door for any government, and that got known, that government could blame the leak on Apple & prosecute Apple. So Apple would try to keep it secret, or at least never speak of it.
Things have turned out better than that.
Apple says in effect, We are not doing it secret. If security is to be lost, let everyone know & be forewarned.
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@blablarg18
"good guys" should have been in quotes in my post. Politicians making these laws usually trot them out as means for the police to find child porn, promising that only the police will ever be given the key to decrypt things. Of course this restriction is impossible without magical thinking.There was a huge political sideshow a few years ago when a terrorist killed some people in in Southern California. The police seized his end-to-end encrypted iPhone and demanded that Apple decrypt it for them. Of course this is impossible, but it didn't stop pandering politicians (including police chiefs, prosecutors, etc.) from demanding it.
Police hired some Israeli company who decrypted it, and there was nothing there - at least that's what they released publicly.
Best thing was that the LA Times supposed technology reporter, who also had a daily segment on one of the local news stations, wrote an editorial demanding that Apple just decrypt it already, showing that he actually knew nothing about end-to-end encryption technology. His column and TV appearances stopped shortly thereafter. Good riddance.
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@tnar said in Apple Removes Cloud Encryption Feature From UK After Backdoor Order:
at least that's what they released publicly
haha, yes we never know
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Historically every totalitarian regime that has ever infringed on the privacy of its citizens did so on the basis that it was necessary to protect society...
What's chilling is that they demand to bypass all checks and balances. No court orders, no requests for data, no transparency, no jurisdiction, just unlimited access for state bureaucrats to dig through the private data of anyone anywhere in the world.It really goes to show that the people in charge have abandoned all libertarian values in favor of authoritarian ones. I can only hope that whichever government comes after them will swiftly abolish that power, but not before using it against their predecessors who instated it. Not out of spite or vengeance but to remind people that you shouldn't do it to others if you don't want it to be done to you.