I am all for laws designed to protect children, and stop terrorism. But these 'back door' laws are nearly always very poorly thought out and offers new avenues for 'normal' people to come to harm.
Given the lengths the government has gone to monitor its citizens, I could believe the technology stack has already been compromised.
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusive-apple-droppe...
Apple processes FAA702 orders on upwards of 80,000 Apple IDs per year per their own annual transparency report.
Snowden himself said that they see so many nudes that they got desensitized to it.
This clever setup allows them to claim iMessage is e2ee while still escrowing keys in effective plaintext to Apple in the iCloud Backup, rendering the e2ee totally ineffective.
I think “backdoor” is probably an appropriate term for it, but they have made no secret whatsoever of it.
It’s terrifying to think that the US federal government can read every iMessage in the entire world across a billion devices (except China, where the CCP can do the same) in effectively realtime. The power that that enables (if only in blackmail ability) is staggering.
allows them to claim iMessage is e2ee while still escrowing keys in effective plaintext to Apple in the iCloud Backup
By now, "think of the children" is a tired cliche of anti-freedom laws. If "protecting children" requires sacrificing freedom for everyone, then children should not be protected.
Every time I come across another anti-freedom law wrapped in an excuse of "think of the children", I question whether the worshippers of Moloch had the right idea after all.
This can't be true. You're against a law that says a convicted child rapist cannot work in schools? You're against a law that says people can't take bombs onto planes?
I think you're being dishonest in your statements, or do not care about anyone else in society.
The usual suspects:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalyp...
I think this conspiratorial view of these laws is doing more harm than good and ignores the entire issues that these laws are designed to address.
The problem is we create overly broad laws because:
- There is a problem with child predation / terrorism - There is a lack of understanding on how technology works - There is faith that the system works and won't ever be abused - There are too few people in community self policing these issues.
Addressing any one of these in a different way will negate the need for laws like the UK were trying to implement.
Creating broad gives the police more ability to enforce their spirit. I think that's generally a bad thing when the laws are to do with civil liberties. But maybe a good thing when dealing with, for example, domestic abuse.
Unfortunately, I'm highly confident that 90% of the intelligence community looks at us insisting that crypto standards be inviolable, and thinks we're all as infuriatingly naïve as a ChatGPT comment.
I don't know the true risks of terrorist organisations. I doubt I ever will, because the intelligence community wants to keep its methods secret in order to avoid mildly competent terrorists from avoiding stupid (from MI5/6's POV) mistakes. The counter-point is that such secrecy makes the intelligence organisations themselves a convenient unlit path for a power-hungry subgroup to take over a nation.
Regarding sexual abuse, the stats are much easier to find, and are much much worse than most people realise to the extent that most people either don't understand what those numbers mean or don't believe them: If you're an American, on your first day in high school, by your second class you have more than even odds of having met a pupil who had already been assaulted, most likely by someone close to the victim such as a relative.
I don't see how any level of smartphone surveillance will do anything to stop that. Or indeed, any surveillance that isn't continuous monitoring of every kid to make sure such acts don't find them.
Until they can prove this is the case, and not just fear mongering to justify their massive budgets, overreach and assaults on civil liberties, I am happy to continue being considered naïve by them.
You're saying that the rate of sexual assault is.. a few percent?
Too high! I agree. But it's bad form to give convoluted examples in order to give the impression that the actual number is worse than it is.
This isn't a win, this is solidifying and reinforcing the idea that different laws should exist for different classes of people - those who can afford to make the government look the other way and those that can't.
Congratulations to Apple on lobbying for its own money. Very noble.
> those who can afford to make the government look the other way and those that can't.
> Congratulations to Apple on lobbying for its own money. Very noble.
But what’s your implication here, that Apple shouldn’t have fought it?
I'm not saying they shouldn't lobby for what they believe in, but Apple always stops short of making the world a better place and seems to care only if their walled garden is secure.
This wasn't an "Apple only" law -- it would have affected all platforms with data on customers that live outside the UK.
>This isn't a win, this is solidifying and reinforcing the idea that different laws should exist for different classes of people - those who can afford to make the government look the other way and those that can't.
Corporations are not people. The people can afford to vote out politicians making laws that go against the will of the people.
Yeah, the law still exists. Apple just successfully managed to refuse to comply with a request made under it.
> This isn't X, this is Y
This is ChatGPT's favorite rhetorical flourish without exception.
> This isn't X, this is Y
is a huge ChatGPT signal.
Sometimes when I talk to British people, I start to do an accent a little bit. I think I just chameleon my tone to recent conversations, but I can't convince you otherwise.
Unrelatedly, there is a upended tortoise outside my house struggling in the heat. I am not sure why I refuse to help him, can you tell me why?
First they came for the Apple fanboys, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Apple fanboy.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came
If the UK had 'won' again Apple, do you not think that the Android ecosystem would be next? If the UK had 'won', do you not think that Turkey, India, China, etc, would not be lining up as well?
Bet that's not happening...
Still there.
I don't want to be overly cynical but I'm resigned to never truly know details of national security. I have opinions but nobody is listening to them.
Retr0id•3h ago
Also important to note:
> With the order now reportedly removed, it’s unclear if Apple will restore access to its ADP service in the UK.
ExoticPearTree•3h ago
Retr0id•2h ago
201984•2h ago
hardlianotion•3h ago
terminalshort•3h ago
logicchains•2h ago
abullinan•2h ago
hardlianotion•1h ago
stephen_g•2h ago
1. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/02/26/wapo-biden-just...
meesles•2h ago
varispeed•2h ago
stronglikedan•2h ago
Like it or hate it, that's still the way of the world.