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lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,720
Boston, MA
Gotta love how the United States figures are a vague "0-1000". Maybe none, maybe 5. Maybe 1000. Can't really say.

I live in such a transparent place. Go go government.

I am assuming this is written this way for purposes of the chart. If you read the article, it says that the government isn't allowing Apple to disclose that information. In other words, it need to say 0-1000 or else the chart would be off.
 

johncarync

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2005
245
227
Cary, NC
Some perspective...

When you adjust for population, many other countries have about the same request rate as the US. For example, if Australia had the same population as the US, their requests would be slightly over 1,000. But, because they are 14 times smaller than the US, they have fewer requests. If Switzerland were 40 times bigger, it would be the same size as the US and their requests would probably swell proportionally to 240.

Based on very fuzzy figures, I believe the likelihood of a US government agency requesting information on your account is about 1 in 300,000 to 500,000.
 

2bikes

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2012
420
4
0 - 1000 = "You can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated" :p
 

nozebleed

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2008
328
46
Gotta love how the United States figures are a vague "0-1000". Maybe none, maybe 5. Maybe 1000. Can't really say.

I live in such a transparent place. Go go government.

maybe you should play this over and over in your mind next time you go in and pull the democrat lever.

reap what you sow
 

MattInOz

macrumors 68030
Jan 19, 2006
2,760
0
Sydney
It would interesting to see what the percentage break down is for the different reasons law enforcement is requesting the information.

I mean law enforement vs say missing persons or safety concerns?
The Australian number is very high given both population and percentage of requests where information was given out.
 

sigma8

macrumors regular
Feb 2, 2005
123
7
Not necessarily true.

Russia might have a "if you tell we will kill your family " addendum.

;)

I figure Russia and China have other ways of getting this information other than asking Apple. I'll be frank: I don't really trust this chart, but I think it's a good effort. Simply by saying "Hey, we want to be transparent about your interactions with us." Apple is putting governments on the spot.

Sure, maybe China's ability to simply lift information from the internet makes Prism look like a third grade "spy kit" with invisible ink, a 3x monocular, and a plastic cup for listening to walls and doors with. They probably don't need to ask. Maybe Russia doesn't even bother investigating first, and just, you know, does stuff. The chart doesn't cover that kind of stuff.

If it was a more of a multiple choice scale of 0-1000, 1001-2000, 2001-3000, etc.. and countries' values were all over the place, then 0-1000 would be meaningful. But when every other country is reporting explicit numbers below 200, 0-1000 is pretty meaningless. I was just hoping the US could provide some numbers that had at least some trivial amount of value.
 

Tiger8

macrumors 68020
May 23, 2011
2,479
649
I figure Russia and China have other ways of getting this information other than asking Apple.
and the US government does not have any other ways of getting this information?

Prism is what we **know** of.
 

swagi

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2007
905
123
If Apple, Google, and Yahoo together said "Screw You" and refused to release anything- what would be the repercussions?

I don't want to get into that topic that deeply - as it is such an embarassment for me...my home country of Germany won't give asylum to our post-modern hero Edward Snowden.

I know many Americans seem to differ - as they are spoon-fed facts about this whole debacle making it look like the rest of the world is developing paranoid mass hysteria.

As a matter of fact it is proven that the NSA did give a fat rat's bottom about Google saying "Screw you" - as they just hacked their front end server. Yes - you read that right. The NSA hacked the Google Front End Server, where your SSL encryption is removed from your mails. Do you think Google likes this part of news?

Just in case you missed it.

Story by the Washington Post

So basically I'd say - consider yourself safe. The Apple servers have been hacked anyway (same applies to Yahoo, Microsoft and anyone else).
 
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50548

Guest
Apr 17, 2005
5,039
2
Currently in Switzerland
Not necessarily true.

Russia might have a "if you tell we will kill your family " addendum.

;)

Sure, that and "communists eat babies" blablabla...the world's first and foremost tyranny nowadays is the US, bar none...it is lucky enough to have no neighbors East and West so that they could teach it a military lesson from time to time.

----------

If Apple, Google, and Yahoo together said "Screw You" and refused to release anything- what would be the repercussions?

None - they should just move away from the US. Manufacturing is almost TOTALLY abroad, staff is highly international and taxation also mainly happening in other countries. Simple as that.
 

scottsjack

macrumors 68000
Aug 25, 2010
1,906
311
Arizona
None - they should just move away from the US. Manufacturing is almost TOTALLY abroad, staff is highly international and taxation also mainly happening in other countries. Simple as that.

It would make me really happy if Apple decided to release all the information in great detail. It might help to force an evil government to reform its ways. I say bring it down.
 

50548

Guest
Apr 17, 2005
5,039
2
Currently in Switzerland
It would make me really happy if Apple decided to release all the information in great detail. It might help to force an evil government to reform its ways. I say bring it down.

Only a civil war would do it, make no mistake. The US needs to be humbled; alas, this won't happen anytime soon unless its own people wake up and smell the coffee.
 

nozebleed

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2008
328
46
Only a civil war would do it, make no mistake. The US needs to be humbled; alas, this won't happen anytime soon unless its own people wake up and smell the coffee.

agreed, but it will be a revolutionary war, not civil war. minor semantics i guess, and it will happen sooner than you think
 

PatriotInvasion

macrumors 68000
Jul 18, 2010
1,643
1,048
Boston, MA
I have to imagine some of the big time married executives at these major tech companies aren't too thrilled about government surveillance either. Sometimes men with a lot of money in their pocket and time on their hands can be drawn to locations and situations that they wouldn't want their wives to be privy to.;)

So I don't think we should all assume these companies are 100% "in" with the government on surveillance because I'm sure these executives would prefer not to be tracked as well.
 

sigma8

macrumors regular
Feb 2, 2005
123
7
maybe you should play this over and over in your mind next time you go in and pull the democrat lever.

reap what you sow

You might want to do some extremely cursory research on PRISM and related crap we're reading news about these days. It was all put in place by a republican administration.
 

terraphantm

macrumors 68040
Jun 27, 2009
3,816
669
Pennsylvania
maybe you should play this over and over in your mind next time you go in and pull the democrat lever.

reap what you sow

PRISM's been around since before Obama. Most of the NSA's authority has been authorized by republican congresses (and I admit democrats did ******** to stop it).

And Frankly, because of the tea party, I have no faith that we'll get a decent republican candidate any time soon. I was no fan of Obama, but compared to Romney, the choice was clear.
 

mw360

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,048
2,428
Theres nothing in the law detailing a company can't give its paying customers numbers on what and when things are being requested and collected on them, it's nonsense really.

EDIT: Judging by the Chart, Apple really does give up the information being voluntarily.

The chart does not say why they gave up the information. 'Voluntarily' is a huge leap of logic. Here's Apple's statement in part...

Requests from Law Enforcement
Like many companies, Apple receives requests from law enforcement agencies
to provide customer information. As we have explained, any government agency demanding customer content from Apple must get a court order.1 When we receive such a demand, our legal team carefully reviews the order. If there is any question about the legitimacy or scope of the court order, we challenge it. Only when we are satisfied that the court order is valid and appropriate do we deliver the narrowest possible set of information responsive to the request.
 
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sigma8

macrumors regular
Feb 2, 2005
123
7
and the US government does not have any other ways of getting this information?

Prism is what we **know** of.

I wasn't trying to read too deeply into it, I was just saying that chart is undoubtedly missing a lot of information. If you live in a country that routinely incarcerates political dissidents, yet they don't make many requests for information from Apple, then you'll probably be aware of your own local hazards despite the fact the chart makes your country look less aggressive than, say, the UK.
 

Peace

Cancelled
Apr 1, 2005
19,546
4,556
Space The Only Frontier
Sure, that and "communists eat babies" blablabla...the world's first and foremost tyranny nowadays is the US, bar none...it is lucky enough to have no neighbors East and West so that they could teach it a military lesson from time to time.

----------



None - they should just move away from the US. Manufacturing is almost TOTALLY abroad, staff is highly international and taxation also mainly happening in other countries. Simple as that.

Sorry to imply the U.S. didn't have that type of addendum. I'm gonna guess the U.S. intelligence community does just about whatever it wants. There is no oversight.
 
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