Doesn’t apple backdoor UK users anyway?
I don’t think they went through with it.
I remember reading a related article reclaimthenet
This same Home Office served Apple with a secret order, a Technical Capability Notice, demanding a backdoor into end-to-end encrypted iCloud backups, first for every human on the planet and later, after Washington threw a tantrum, for British users alone. Secret being the operative word, since the law gagged Apple from so much as admitting the order existed.
Apple’s answer was to rip its strongest encryption out of the UK entirely rather than build the thing, sniffing that it has “never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services,” and the fight is still grinding through the courts. That is the track record of this government, one that asks one company, in the dark, to dismantle encryption for an entire nation is not a government you hand a camera-side scanner and trust to use it gently.
Nevermind a disgruntled employee just sharing it.
I don’t put a key under the mat, even less for the cops.
Tim Cook wasn’t addressing you personally. It’s an analogy.
The analogy presumes you want cops to have free access to your home
If you don’t want the cops to have access to your home that means you have supporting to hide which means that can get a search warrant
I do not trust apple a single second, that they do not have their own backdoors in their OS. I can’t prove it, but I bet they scan their customers just as much as google does. They just say they don’t to justify their horrendous prices AND milk them for marketing purposes. Double-wammy.
You are not “giving the key to the cops” with Apple, I am so sick of seeing this bullshit misinformation online regarding user privacy. iCloud storage now provides the ability for users to store their encryption keys on their own devices locally, see ‘Advanced Data Protection’. On top of that, even Apple doesn’t have the ability to access user encrypted cloud data, because no one besides possibly state level agencies, has the capability to crack AES-256 encryption; hence why it is the industry standard. There was even the famous San Bernadino Legal Case case where Apple flat out denied the FBI a backdoor into a known terrorist’s phone because of the wide-scale security risks it would’ve introduced into their devices. In the end they had to buy a backdoor exploit from an Australian Cyber firm.
Has Apple been notorious for traditionally overspending on advertising, packaging, and hype campaigns to justify higher prices? Absolutely, but in ~2020 Apple realised this wasn’t sustainable (at least for their phones) and made a significant pivot towards more affordable iphones. They first test ran this in 2018 when they launched the iPhone XR for $749 alongside the $999 iPhone XS. Then in 2020 they made the actual pivot with the release of the iPhone SE (2nd Gen) for just $399, placing flagship processing power in an older chasis. Then in 2022 they decided to make the same pivot with their Laptops, and for the first time in modern history, Apple intentionally cultivated a tiered budget laptop strategy.. Then you have the release of the Macbook Neo as recently as last year, and now Apple is now starting to make budget competitive laptop models.
Anyways I sincerely apologise for these massive walls of text, I promise I am not an Apple shill, I have just been extremely passionate about computing hardware and cybersecurity ever since I began my unboxing video and Edward Snowden interview phase as a kid, so I have been following the evolution of the 2010s hardware and digital landscape era for the entirety of my childhood and adolescence; at a certain point, you get sick and tired of seeing people outright lie and spread misinformation that ends up causing people to make terrible misinformed decisions. What I hate more than anything however, is specifically those who end up demotivating people from exercising proper cyber hygiene (because of doomer propaganda), and making terrible product decisions (especially when it comes to Apple) because of historical misalignments with today’s current technology trends (see the .com bubble burst, death of netscape + internet explorer, death of widespread user forums and the corporatisation of the internet, the end of Google’s public perception of innocence, and the rise of ML and AI integration). If you’re to take anything away from this rant it should be the awareness that the technological landscape is evolving so fast that you can never be certain you’re making an informed decision, without first verifying the validity of whatever beliefs are informing your choice. Something easy you can do, is get into the habit of always asking yourself “Are these beliefs based on current or past facts?”- this line of reasoning has never once failed me my entire life, and I should know considering I’ve been browsing the web for as long as I’ve known how to read.
Do you really trust these proprietary systems to do what they say they’re doing? Sure, the key may be stored locally, but an OS backdoor or compromise could still exfiltrate it, giving users a false sense of security.
It’s not about me trusting these proprietary systems, it’s about me trusting mathematics, and basing my decisions off historical facts. Apple can’t just “magic” backdoors into their devices, and since a significant part of their business model has been in pioneering widespread commercial data privacy, it would literally go against their entire business interests. OS backdoors do compromise devices, which is why Apple pays > $1M for bug bounty hunters who find them first.
The problem with you, is that you have no foundational knowledge of how digital devices work, and that’s understandable given how widespread these technologies have become. But trust me when I say, cybersecurity isn’t a multi-billion dollar industry for no reason, individuals and large corporations pay a shit ton of money to guarantee they aren’t shooting in the dark with their systems security & privacy. If you wanna learn more about this stuff, I highly recommend watching Edward Snowden’s video interviews where he talks extensively about what he found in the leaks he made about the NSA, because he’s able to detail a lot about what intelligence agencies can and can’t do when it comes to this stuff.
Keep in mind though, that encryption has been a fundamental game changer which makes it impossible for the CIA even to create a giant search engine that indexes everyone’s data, that was only possible back then because everything was sent in plain text with practically zero wifi security. Now wifi security has become a cybersecurity speciality in and of itself.
Saying Apple “can’t” put a backdoor into their own devices is an absolute claim, they’re the ones who control the software, so it’s possible in principle. Business incentives and bug bounties reduce the risks sure, but they don’t eliminate the pressure or legal mechanisms major governments can apply. Snowden’s documents showed that governments have methods to compel or exploit access, and implementation flaws or covert agreements can defeat cryptography in practice.
I do have a solid foundation in how these systems work. You should read the GNU Manifesto and learn about Free Software, it explains why blind confidence in a completely proprietary stack is to remain untrusted. No one should be this certain a proprietary system will always respect users rights.
You are actually retarded if you think you think you know anything about technology after making a ridiculous claim like that. Apple is not putting backdoors in their own systems, show me one shred of evidence. It’s obvious that you are going to AI, putting in your argument, and then paraphrasing whatever random answer you get lmfao. Get outta here.
Oh, so we’re going straight to insults because your ego got hurt? That’s cute.
Now explain to me this, how could I possibly show you one shred of evidence if their systems are proprietary? Oh right, I can’t because they don’t provide the source code to nearly any of their software.
See how this works?
Can anyone break even AES-128 without years of supercomputer time?
To give it to you straight: it would take roughly 1.2 unvigintillion years (that’s a 1 followed by 51 zeros) for the fastest supercomputer on Earth to brute-force AES-256 encryption. In other words, AES-256 is practically unbreakable by modern computing standards. Even if you hijacked every computer on the planet, the sun would literally burn out and the entire universe would experience heat death long before you even made a dent. The above commenter apparently has “foundational level knowledge” of computer systems, yet thinks they can put backdoors into their own products.
Just to give you an idea of how this actually functions in their products; Apple comprehensively bakes encryption into both the hardware and software levels of iPhones and iPads by default, making it one of the most secure consumer operating systems available. Every modern Apple device features a dedicated coprocessor called the Secure Enclave which leverages a Built-in Crypto Engine, to ensure that that all data stored on the device’s flash storage is encrypted at the hardware level using an AES-256 crypto engine. On top of that, they utilise UIDs (Unique Device Keys) which are physically fused into the device’s silicon , Unique Device Keys: A Unique ID (UID) is physically fused into the device’s silicon during manufacturing. Neither Apple nor the iOS software itself can read this key directly. It is used to generate the base keys that encrypt the entire file system (including the OS itself). Because the encryption is tied to the specific hardware, they are not even capable of engineering their own backdoors into their systems, without completely breaking the entire underlying security architecture, which underpins all their devices.
Lol, I’m pretty sure I found your Dread account too, weren’t that hard to find 😂
but YOU are the one GIVING the key to cops tim.
I think you’re missing the point. Apple has famously resisted implemented back doors for the authorities.
He’s warning against leaving that metaphorical key under the mat.
That we know of
resisted? the era they pretend to do it is gone.
They’re all essentially trying to manipulate Trump by playing into his narcissism. This is bad and not what I want to see, but it might not be an (intentional) act of submission.
It’s stupid but it’s not back door access to you phone
trus me bro moment.
Yeah but we saw how quickly you bowed and kissed the ring of king Trump.
That shit erodes trust.
What privacy? It’s not even a discussion anymore, it’s gone. No point even talking about privacy. It really is gone.
If Apple were truly serious about an individual’s security and privacy, they’d facilitate self hosted online services as peers to the versions they provide on their platforms.
They can be best in class at what they do, but exclusively locking everyone into their ecosystem obliterates any meaningful good will.
Why would you want a cop in your house?
ATAB
All Tim Apples are Bastards
Why would I leave a key under my mat for the cops in the first place?
A rare insight into Tim Cook’s mind.
It’s an analogy to the government asking for backdoors into phones and such
You wouldn’t, but that’s what governments are effectively asking be done, lending validity to the analogy.
Cops can just knock down the door.
Yeah, they’re used to being able to force their way in anywhere, but in the digital space, many people have steel security doors, and the police don’t have a battering ram big enough.
Also, kicking down the door leaves evidence and usually require some sort of justification or approval. If they have a key to a backdoor, they don’t have to tell anyone they were inside, or ask for permission to use it.
I mean, it’s not like there’s cases of police committing abuse and misuse, are there…?
Why are you drawing your curtains? You must have something to hide. All your neighbours live in glass houses, why do you insist on this strange idea of privacy? Open up, if you’re not guilty there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Only guilty people draw the curtains.
Oh an btw I decide what guilty means. Open up your curtains.
We have an easy peasy solution to that.
We will just make it illegal for burglars to look under the mat.
And if they do look under the mat, we will also make it illegal fro them to take the key.
Finally we will also make it illegal for burglars to use the key.See there an absolutely bullet proof solution, so why does the tech industry continue to claim this is a bad idea?
As a politician I simply can’t understand why they are so contrary to this idea that will increase safety for everybody!!/s (just in case)
Granted, it’s a work in progress; after all the commandment that says “You shall not steal” hasn’t fully stopped burgling or thieving, but I’m sure it will happen soon.
They just haven’t shown it to enough school kids yet. That will fix it!
I know it’s only a joke, but this comment highlights something that many folk in power seem to forget.
Houses and their doormats are in a single physical location that has an unambiguous legal jurisdiction. In any given country, if you break into a house you are subject to that country’s laws.
Not so with the Internet. It’s very difficult to legislate for something like this because other countries’ laws can just ignore you, and you have no power over those countries and their laws. So, making things physically secure is far more effective than legislation, especially when it comes to the Internet.
It’s not only a joke, it’s an analogy to show how stupid the claims of politicians are, that they want to have a backdoor for law enforcement.
Of course the analogy isn’t perfect for the reasons you describe, and those reasons makes it actually worse.
Or… you and a friend on another floor put your keys under each other’s mats. Then you both always have a way in and the chance of a burglar figuring it out is almost zero.
That’s security through obscurity, as well as shared keys.
What happens when the burglar in waiting watches someone grab the key and use it?
Or in the case of phone security, what happens when your address is printed on the key?
A better analogy is fire lock boxes, where apartment complexes have a master key stored in a box out front that can be unlocked with a master key firemen carry.
Unfortunately, that bic pen trick turned out to work on those lock boxes a decade or so ago, meaning all a burglar needed to get into ANY residence in ANY building with a fire lock box was a bic pen. In fact, a burglar could open the box, get the key, duplicate it, put it back in the box, and nobody would even know security had been compromised.
It’s a pretty good analogy for what’s being asked for here.
Especially when the cops ARE the burglars in the first place.
Also, we paid some bribes to a fascist so…
You mean Time Apple, the man that was renamed by a pedophile and then gave that pedophile a golden gift to appease him?
Stop acting like giving gold bars to paedophile is bribery. It was obviously a payment for child prostitution.
