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CarAnalogy

macrumors 601
Jun 9, 2021
4,266
7,873
It’s enough to convince me not to visit. I’ll take my tourist dollars elsewhere, which is sad because I want to see London!

If you want to see London don’t let that stop you. Don’t even take your phone. Just take a burner and a real camera. You’ll have more fun that way.

Ironic that people used to take real phones and disposable cameras.
 

mzeb

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2007
358
612
China spares no expense when it comes to surveillance. No “communist” countries do. They can afford to have a person watch every foreigner personally. I doubt these are high paying jobs. It’s for the glory of the state, comrade.

Monitoring FaceTime calls would be expensive to set up but not all that expensive to maintain. And again, expense is not an issue. They don’t call it the Great Firewall for nothing.

According to Microsoft, the Chinese stole very secret encryption keys and used them to break into US government and Microsoft servers. I think China could get the keys for FaceTime or whatever else they want.

They mandated a few years ago that all servers serving Chinese users must be in China. All of Apple’s encryption works so seamlessly because Apple manages a lot of keys. Well, Apple’s servers do. The ones in China, for the Chinese users. They don’t actually have to steal anything in this case.
This is the trick of end to end encryption for FaceTime and iMessage. The keys don't live on the server. Unless China has access to a phone directly having Apple's keys doesn't really matter. All they'll get by having Apple's keys is the metadata around chats.
 

CarAnalogy

macrumors 601
Jun 9, 2021
4,266
7,873
This is the trick of end to end encryption for FaceTime and iMessage. The keys don't live on the server. Unless China has access to a phone directly having Apple's keys doesn't really matter. All they'll get by having Apple's keys is the metadata around chats.

From this page: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/how-imessage-sends-and-receives-messages-sec70e68c949/

the device contacts the Apple Identity Service (IDS) to retrieve the public keys and APNs addresses for all of the devices associated with the addressee.

This is the server I believe they made them move to China to be under full Chinese jurisdiction. They can simply add their own key either to a targeted user or possibly to all devices. This is what I meant by direct key distribution. If you receive a private key in person directly from the device you’re talking to, you can be more sure only the two of you have the keys. That’s why Apple is introducing iMessage key verification, to be certain the key you have for the person you’re talking to is actually the key they are using. Doesn’t solve the distribution problem. The only way group iMessage can work is for Apple to handle the key distribution for chat members. That loophole allows them to silently add another “member” to the “group” chat.
 

jimbobb24

macrumors 68040
Jun 6, 2005
3,356
5,385
I support this if all politicians emails, text, phone conversations and any conversation except with their spouse is public. That might be a worthwhile trade.
 

jimbobb24

macrumors 68040
Jun 6, 2005
3,356
5,385
No need to defend iMessage and FaceTime... They are used in the UK, but nowhere near as important as in the US. WhatsApp is very strong in UK and Europe. Like, the green versus blue bubble issue is not a thing here. Group Chats are always done on WhatsApp, I have never ever been invited to an iMessage Group Chat. Android also has a far larger marketshare here. If iMessage and FaceTime were to shut down, everyone would just use WhatsApp.The only reason I do not exclusively use WhatsApp is because they don't offer an Apple Watch App.
Won’t WhatsApp also stop working in the UK to maintain their encryption?
 

falainber

macrumors 68040
Mar 16, 2016
3,445
4,019
Wild West
so no stats then, thanks for confirming it was a wild and inaccurate claim
As if you provided accurate data. Don’t you know that outside US (and Japan) Android devices dominate and, as a result, iMessage and FaceTime are not a viable option.
 

falainber

macrumors 68040
Mar 16, 2016
3,445
4,019
Wild West
It’s enough to convince me not to visit. I’ll take my tourist dollars elsewhere, which is sad because I want to see London!
If you do not want to visit the countries where Android devices dominate, your options are very limited: USA and Japan. But I think you need to visit a shrink first.
 
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1129846

Cancelled
Mar 25, 2021
528
988
This is the trick of end to end encryption for FaceTime and iMessage. The keys don't live on the server. Unless China has access to a phone directly having Apple's keys doesn't really matter. All they'll get by having Apple's keys is the metadata around chats.
The way around that would be say in China they require everything to route threw a middle layer and do basically man in the middle attack. In the end to end China could say require the middle man to take the keys and decrypt them. The end to end would be to the server.

This in on a basic level but it would be china banning the use of End to end and require middle layer to be end points. There are some ways to prevent man in the middle but requires both parties knowing things about the other end and behaving to match.
 

mzeb

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2007
358
612
The way around that would be say in China they require everything to route threw a middle layer and do basically man in the middle attack. In the end to end China could say require the middle man to take the keys and decrypt them. The end to end would be to the server.

This in on a basic level but it would be china banning the use of End to end and require middle layer to be end points. There are some ways to prevent man in the middle but requires both parties knowing things about the other end and behaving to match.
The point of E2E encryption is to make it so M2M isn't possible. There are no keys for the message content stored on Apple's servers, therefore you can't have a man in the middle. This is why Signal and iMessage are more secure than, say, Telegram. A Telegram message is decrypted on the server (at least temporarily) before being sent to the person receiving the message, this is not the case with an E2E encrypted message. The metadata (who is sending and receiving and when, how big the messages is, etc.) is all available but the message content is not. Only the receiver has that ability.
 

mzeb

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2007
358
612
From this page: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/how-imessage-sends-and-receives-messages-sec70e68c949/



This is the server I believe they made them move to China to be under full Chinese jurisdiction. They can simply add their own key either to a targeted user or possibly to all devices. This is what I meant by direct key distribution. If you receive a private key in person directly from the device you’re talking to, you can be more sure only the two of you have the keys. That’s why Apple is introducing iMessage key verification, to be certain the key you have for the person you’re talking to is actually the key they are using. Doesn’t solve the distribution problem. The only way group iMessage can work is for Apple to handle the key distribution for chat members. That loophole allows them to silently add another “member” to the “group” chat.
That loophole isn't there for two reasons. First, each message is signed on the users device (second paragraph) so you know it was sent from the users device. This creates ID for the user to the receiver(s) devices. Apple does control IDs for devices which I'll get to in a moment. You can't spoof a user sending a message because of this.
Second, each message is encrypted using keys for each receiving device. This means it can only land on users' devices who are meant to receive the message including in group chats (the keys used to encrypt the messages can be for one or multiple users' devices.) This is described in paragraph 3. The diagram also shows how they are transmitted and do not hit Apple's servers.
The one potential "loophole" would be if an additional device were added to one of the group chat member's accounts. Apple does control the ID servers. In theory when a new device is added to your account you'll get a notification on all your attached devices (we've all activated a new device to iCloud. That message.) Could Apple suppress that message in China, yes they could.
As this is written there's no way to get added to a chat silently to spy. I'll be happy to point out, though, that Apple's software isn't open so we can't verify for sure they haven't hacked things up differently in China. So truly anything could be possible since their servers exist in China for China.
 

ric22

macrumors 68020
Mar 8, 2022
2,038
1,942
In this regard UK is not Europe. Apple products are way more popular there than on the continent - both iMessage and FaceTime are at least as popular as Whatsapp.
Eh? iMessage is popular, but WhatsApp must get orders of magnitude more traffic. Teenagers to pensioners use WhatsApp as their primary messaging service. Nothing comes close. My mother is literally the only human being I know that doesn't use WhatsApp. 😂😂
 

Artemis70

macrumors 6502
Feb 1, 2013
285
293
No need to defend iMessage and FaceTime... They are used in the UK, but nowhere near as important as in the US. WhatsApp is very strong in UK and Europe. Like, the green versus blue bubble issue is not a thing here. Group Chats are always done on WhatsApp, I have never ever been invited to an iMessage Group Chat. Android also has a far larger marketshare here. If iMessage and FaceTime were to shut down, everyone would just use WhatsApp.The only reason I do not exclusively use WhatsApp is because they don't offer an Apple Watch App.
While I agree that WhatsApp is used significantly more often for group chats, I would not agree with your always. I do have quite a few iMessage group chats as well. I'm in the Netherlands, where just like in many other European countries, WhatsApp is used significantly more than any other chat service.
 
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ric22

macrumors 68020
Mar 8, 2022
2,038
1,942
While I agree that WhatsApp is used significantly more often for group chats, I would not agree with your always. I do have quite a few iMessage group chats as well. I'm in the Netherlands, where just like in many other European countries, WhatsApp is used significantly more than any other chat service.
I've also never been invited to an iMessage group chat, and neither has my partner, and probably 95% of our friends and colleagues have iPhones...
 

JustinePaula

macrumors 6502a
Mar 14, 2012
644
269
Does it matter if the platform only works between Apple devices, if it worked across Windows/Mac OSX, iphone and say samsungs, then maybe, after all as it is apple to apple, a lot of folks use whatsapp as it does bridge the apple only system..
 

4389842

Cancelled
Jan 7, 2017
179
267
As ever - if the answer you get isn't the one you wanted - blame the electorate. If only everyone could be as bright and immune to influence as yourself!
That is not the point: the vote you are given is very precious. Using it wisely entails that you’d do good to inform yourself diligently before using it.

If you don’t, that is also your right but then don’t go and complain afterwards that things did not pan out.
 
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Chazak

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2022
465
703
Make sense. If there was a situation that threatened the security of the public, they would have the power to investigate the guilty parties.

Historically Apple has shown that they’re unwilling to co-operate with unlocking phones for authorities. Can you blame the government for wanting to side-step them?
Sadly, I think you may really believe what you wrote.

The "guilty parties" are guilty because the UK government wants to eavesdrop on their communication? No trial"? No hearing? No evidence? No attorney representation?

With all due respect, I find your view and acquiescence to be scarier and potentially more dangerous than that of the UK government.
 
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iigsie

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2007
141
116
how do you know who has voted for who? i don't think anyone has advertised what their voting preference is/was.
Plenty people here defend the tories. It’s a reasonable assumption that those who defend them support them.
 
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ric22

macrumors 68020
Mar 8, 2022
2,038
1,942
Blue passports but no blue bubbles. This is how far we've sunk :(
Ah, the famous "blue" passports that the idiots of our country cherish... the solitary "success story" of Brexit for some. Ironic how they chose such a dark blue that 90% of people see as pure black, that scientists confirm would better be identified as being black than blue 😅
 

SoldOnApple

macrumors 65816
Jul 20, 2011
1,076
1,791
World governments should just learn how to hack phones and services, like any spy agency would. Sure on paper the encryption makes them unhackable, but just making laws banning the encryption is cheating. I bet Mossad is investing a fortune trying to break the encryption on iPhones and Android alike, like any spy agency worth their salt would.
 

cyb3rdud3

macrumors 68040
Jun 22, 2014
3,326
2,076
UK
I wouldn't and didn't. I couldn't leave fast enough and feel embarrassed to come from there. I thought it was a disaster when I lived there but now the country committed suicide by leaving the EU. Thank goodness I qualify for an EU passport other ways.
Don't know what you are talking about. I've got an EU passport, are not British and live in the UK. I don't share that warped view you have at all. LOL Just walk around in London, you'll hear more European language than English. I'm not sure what happened to you and where you think the grass is greener, I've got enough experience in live that the grass is never greener on the the other side, it is what you make it to be and is a reflection of oneself.
 
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Pezimak

macrumors 68030
May 1, 2021
2,999
3,295
China spares no expense when it comes to surveillance. No “communist” countries do. They can afford to have a person watch every foreigner personally. I doubt these are high paying jobs. It’s for the glory of the state, comrade.

Monitoring FaceTime calls would be expensive to set up but not all that expensive to maintain. And again, expense is not an issue. They don’t call it the Great Firewall for nothing.

According to Microsoft, the Chinese stole very secret encryption keys and used them to break into US government and Microsoft servers. I think China could get the keys for FaceTime or whatever else they want.

They mandated a few years ago that all servers serving Chinese users must be in China. All of Apple’s encryption works so seamlessly because Apple manages a lot of keys. Well, Apple’s servers do. The ones in China, for the Chinese users. They don’t actually have to steal anything in this case.

What many don’t realise, is that China is the blueprint of where their own society is heading, not just the UK, it’s all planned at a certain meeting held every year in a certain place at the beginning of the year.
 
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