BBC News - Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
- “In a statement Apple said it was “gravely disappointed” that the security feature would no longer be available to British customers.”
Washington post - Apple yanks encrypted storage in U.K. instead of allowing backdoor access
I guess removing access for the uk is better than backdooring it in silence. But still, not great.
Also, it is interesting comparing compliance on this with complying with the EU on sideloading apps.
Original title: ‘Apple caved and pulled end-to-end encrypted backups in the uk’ - record of bad take title
That’s not caving. That’s standing up and saying fuck you, your people don’t matter as much as the rest of the world because you’re lunatics.
Saying “fuck you” would be more like “we’re no longer selling devices in uk and iCloud won’t work anymore”
yea, its a blow to uk user’s privacy & security but not caving. Caving would be implimenting a backdoor. Title was a bit of an annoyed initial reaction, sorry there… maybe best to improve it, i’m not sure?
Apple Caved. I’m no apple fan but what exactly would not caving have been here? Make the backdoor? Pull out of the UK ? Fund an expensive legal battle against the laws of a democratically elected government?
Apple did not cave
caving would’ve been to build the backdoor
End to end encryption is MEANINGLESS if someone else also has a key
They removed a feature in the region to avoid setting a precedent that they would backdoor their feature on the whims of a shitty government
Now Apple gets to tell the UK that they would love to give fully encrypted backups but the UK government does not like encryption and security
The UK government’s obsession with being a Big Brother is so damn frustrating. A preview of what other governments will try and become in the near future, unfortunately.
Apple can claim that they never built backdoor. But talk is cheap without showing the code for people to audit.
Go all the way, remove ALL iPhone services from the UK saying the government will not allow users to have privacy. The government will go back on it within a week.
Copy of my comment in c/apple:
Honestly I think this is the right move.
Pull the feature and tell the public that the government won’t permit the public to secure their own data.
“I have security and privacy features for you, but your government won’t let you use them”
Set the public against this overreach.
I think it’s the right move by Apple.
I don’t think it’s the right move by my Government to be ordering this.
Like most governments, the UK’s has a poor record on understanding technical standards (They’re still trying to implement age-restriction on porn sites, something that’s been ongoing for a decade) Backdoor or lack of encryption - both make data security impossible and make the lives of criminals a whole lot easier. We simply cannot have safe data this way.
So what’s Google doing? I assume they’re impacted by the same regulation.
This is frightening.
They do not have the ability to just remove e2e back-ups in the UK alone and walk away from this, that’s not how the law is written as I understand it.
The snooper’s charter gives the UK government the RIGHT to DEMAND access to encryption keys of any user GLOBALLY. The law is that they can force the cooperation of Apple to decrypt the account of an American user, of a German user, of a Russian user, of a South African user, of a Brazilian user, of a Japanese user who have never stepped foot in the UK.
So they’re claiming that this protects their users, that they haven’t complied but the only way to avoid complying with these secret gag orders for compromising encryption GLOBALLY at the demand of the UK government is to remove themselves entirely from the jurisdiction of the UK. Is to remove all executives and technical personnel from UK soil, to not hire such people who live in or are citizens of the UK as technical personnel as they could be gag ordered and compelled to cooperate. To basically entirely pull out of any presence but maybe storefronts in the UK and take steps to prevent the arrest and pressuring of their executives and key technical people with access from being subject to UK coercion.
That they haven’t done that means all users globally are still at risk. This may be a big PR stunt to convince people they haven’t caved when in fact they have in secret and will hand over data of global users to the UK which shares it via eyes agreements with the US, with France, Australia, etc. This has the added benefit of allowing the UK to keep such access secret by acting annoyed with Apple but not actually pressing any case. If they try and actually prosecute or pressure Apple that’s a sign that they haven’t cooperated globally, if they only offer angry words to the press IMO that’s a sign that in secret they’ve given access globally and only informed UK users that their cloud data isn’t protected.
A better title would be “Apple helps the US government bypass the 4th amendment”.
I know Apple is an American company but what does this have to do with the US?
I agree that I was confused at first, until I remembered that any of the coalition countries (7 eyes?) has access to anything secret, they share with others that don’t.
Here in the UK, many typical phone users already assume that their data is shared anyway. Every person that i spoke to about this today asked why I think it’s a problem as they have nothing to hide. A worrying position.
Here’s my response to this line of thinking:
“Would you be okay if I fucked your spouse/partner/etc? No? Why not? You’re already having sex with them. What’s the difference?”
Consent. That’s the difference.
Ask them why they don’t keep their toilet in their living room. 😆
Because it would stink. I get your point but there are better ways of demonstrating it.
“If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to say” -Edward Snowden
You’re right. I could never convince my mates. Their typical response “I have nothing to hide, they already have my data”
What if you ask if you can borrow their phone and password for an hour? They have nothing to hide?
😂 they would never do that.
That’s the point isn’t it?
They would say “that’s different” without elaborating why exactly.
