Apple Criticizes Proposed UK 'Investigatory Powers' Surveillance Bill

[rctlr]

Making iMessage unencrypted would not bother the 99.99%. SMS Messaging has been around a lot longer than iMessage or WhatsApp, so for the common folk it makes no odds. They would still have to go through the process to get that data from the providers.

Its all the other forms of encrypted traffic I'm concerned about - banking especially. It will be a backward step to enforce that kind of encrypted traffic to be compromised.

Its been proved that the attackers in the paris attacks used SMS, not iMessage or whatsapp.
The "Terrorist SecOps" document is one thats been around for years, all be it adjusted to include encrypted messaging and TOR.

Britain had a proud standing in cryptology, its a pity that all that people have achieved can be undermined by the near sighted.

Terrorism will always be here, IRA, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and now ISIS (or whatever people want to call them), when they are gone, someone/thing will replace it.

It kind of reminds me of that sketch in Life of Brian

Its better to keep encryption than to destroy it.

 

[sim667]

I was born in 1984



Theresa May is a horrible piece of crap who's a disgrace to this country.

She hates the police and has gone after them with no mercy, there's not a serving copper who likes her. She's now turning to the fire brigade to destroy.

Almost as if she or someone she is with has shares in a private company that could "rescue" the bankrupt police.

The sooner she crawls back under her rock the better this country will be

Theresa May could do with losing some weight. About a stone from the neck up.

 

[sparkie1984]

Theresa May could do with losing some weight. About a stone from the neck up.

Probably just take the head off the beast to be safe

 

[RobQuads]

I think it said something when they found out that the Paris bombers were all just using standard SMS for communications. None of this highly sophisticated encrypted technology. The stuff that in theory they should easily be able to snoop on already.
I can understand why they want it but I can't see it happening.

 

[cableguy84]

Apple is rightfully upset.

England ... birthplace of 1984.

England .. Birthplace of ARM processors and Jonny Ive

 

[sim667]

England .. Birthplace of ARM processors and Jonny Ive

And tim berners-lee

 

[Adam552]

It better require an iOS update to implement, then nobody will update.

 

[cableguy84]

This is such a bad idea anyways, the people that are "abusing" encrypted messaging like imessage will just move to a different platform if this is implemented.

 

[Saucesome2000]

Sadly our current government cares very little about what we think, a more hateful bunch of people I have yet to come across.

Is the election process the same as it is in the states? The people should rally to oust whoever proposed the bill in the next election, or better yet - have them impeached.

 

[Rocketman]

What I find totally amusing is the U.S. Constitution was written precisely to protect us against government overreach. The internet rolls along as a result of a government effort to have ubiquitous, secure and loss tolerant communication, it gets spread to citizen use in the name internet, and now that it is ubiquitous worldwide they want to quash it. Too bad, so sad. Nope.

We still need to be protected from our governments more than ever.

 

[nt5672]

I really hope Apple is able to withstand the pressure. My guess is that they will not. Why? Because Apple is highly regulated (taxes, audits, equal employment, environmental, etc) by the government and therefore has to ultimately do what the government wants. You see a corporation does not get innocent until proven guilty. They can be harassed, audited, investigated, called before Congress, etc. without any reason and without any recourse for the costs incurred.

They only way to protect us citizens is for us citizens to stand up for freedom. Alas, for most, the cost is just too high (err, I guess the absolutely correct way to say it is that indoctrination has made the cost seem too high.) So lets give freedom and ability to be innocent until proven guilty away, so we can feel good and about doing something on terrorism (which of course is not really happening.)

 

[rdlink]

Err, RIPA keeps us safe Mr Cook. Its capabilities allow us to keep track of threats.

Not all of us have the privilege to be wet-behind-the-ears West Coast liberals.

No it doesn't. It's a 20 pound sledgehammer devised by myopic brained idiots. It destroys personal privacy in the name of "security."

 

[Garsun]

What's more the same Members of Parliament that we elect to represent our views are immune from the invasion of privacy.

The draft bill clearly omits them from being subject to the surveillance that they would have us under; it will write 'the Wilson doctrine' into law, preventing surveillance of their communications.

It amazes me to think that, once the backdoors exist, the MPs could possibly believe that other governments would refrain from examining their data.

 

[tongxinshe]

Apple went on to say the legislation could cause businesses to have to deal with a set of "overlapping foreign and domestic laws" that will "inevitably conflict" and lead to the risk of sanctions. UK agencies could, for example, ask for information stored in data centers in other countries, infringing on that country's data protection laws. "That is an unreasonable position to be placed in," Apple wrote.

This shows that Apple don't understand how this world currently runs. There is no "conflict", the UK+US policy overrides anything else. Anyone dare to disagree? No problem, you will soon be wiped out from this world.

 

[QCassidy352]

Mod delete please. Thanks.

 

[Eraserhead]

It would be great fun to see Apple play a game of chicken with the U.K., as they might well win. But I'm quite sure Apple would cave first. They're not going to go to war with a major European government.

If Cook caves his privacy stance is in the bin.

 

[QCassidy352]

Mod delete please. Thanks.

 

[Eraserhead]

Of course they'll cave. They're a business, and they're going to lose more sales leaving the UK than they'd lose going back to iOS 7 encryption policies.

If they cave to Britain they will have to cave to everyone else.

That's the Chinese sales flushed down the toilet for example.

 

[QCassidy352]

Mod delete please. Thanks.

 

[Eraserhead]

Wait, why? The Chinese won't accept a backdoor?

The Chinese probably buy iPhones because they know Apple haven't given their government a backdoor - or because they respect Apple's brand as being premium. Otherwise why not buy a Chinese phone?

 

[thasan]

This shows that Apple don't understand how this world currently runs. There is no "conflict", the UK+US policy overrides anything else. Anyone dare to disagree? No problem, you will soon be wiped out from this world.

Or labelled as undemocratic, oppressive or terrorist countries

 

[rdlink]

Of course they'll cave. They're a business, and they're going to lose more sales leaving the UK than they'd lose going back to iOS 7 encryption policies.

They don't have to cave. It's not an either/or proposition. All they have to do is remove the services in question from their devices, and make it very clear to their customers why they did it. It won't last long.

 

[sir1963nz]

Or even better, disable iMessage completely in the UK and force SMS only. Then make sure that the press lets UK citizens know why the change was made. No better way to change a politicians mind quickly than to anger all of there constituents at once.

OR, supply a version for the UK, but let the UK know that they "had" to give the key to China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, and Nigeria too.....

 

[sir1963nz]

I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before we lose out to these back doors. Too many governments pushing hard for it. What can be done to stop it?

Give the ALL the same backdoor.
When they realise that China, Russia,North Korea, Uganda, Syria, etc etc etc can all read THEIR messages too because they all wanted the back door and then their messages get posted they will realise that security and privacy are a good thing.

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.

 

[MH01]

Online fraud is *much* more of an issue than terrorism - and it costs us £75 billion a year.

You can't have safe encryption and still keep it unsafe for terrorists, it's not mathematically possible.

That's a problem for the Banks to address, no offense but the current system is very insecure and open to fraud as you say, though the Banks are not changing, so it seems the profits from the current easy but flawed system , outweigh the £75 billion lost.

Fix the Banking system, not sign away our rights.

Don't worry, Terrorists also get done by the Fraudsters, it's a level playing field !