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Amazon Dropped Device Encryption From Fire OS Before Apple-FBI Case

It would be silly to trust future Fire products now, but at least this doesn't un-encrypt existing owners' encrypted devices.

Oh, wait...

In any case, at least ultra-cheap tablets are not used by children.

Oh, wait...

I guess all I can say is, mistakes happen—this was not an intentional decision by Amazon.

Oh, wait...
 
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Confused about the benefits of removing it from streaming devices. Is the government interested in how many times a year I watch Star Wars or something? WTF?
 
Snoopy4 said:
Confused about the benefits of removing it from streaming devices. Is the government interested in how many times a year I watch Star Wars or something? WTF?
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Maybe the ISP could use the data. Just a thought.
 
bsbeamer said:
Terrible timing. Was the Amazon support actually from the AWS division, rather than the Amazon commercial division?

Unfortunately, this may be a "good" business move for Amazon in an attempt to secure government-sector market-share in the future. Depending on the FBI case outcome, there may be local governments "up in arms" about encryption and they will want to put their money where there mouth is... maybe become the next Blackberry-style alternative?
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You think the government will want unencrypted devices for their own employees?
 
Only an idiot would buy a device made by a web order company. Amazon is a distributor, not a computer manufacturer. Their devices were always going to disappoint in one way or another. Weak encryption, no encryption or selling your private data to Facebook and Putin. Nothing would have surprised me, only if Fire OS would work in the best interest of the user.
 
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philosopherdog said:
Their devices stink big time. Amazon is showing their true colours. Imagine all of the jobs the West will lose in the long run if this weakening of security becomes the norm. The stupid are running the world. It's getting tedious.
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You obviously don't have an Echo. Echo has Apple and Google execs pooping in their pants. Echo is what Siri can't even imagine being in her wildest fantasies.

Never underestimate the power of a good microphone. Apple still hasn't figured that out and continues to put cheap garbage mics in all their products.
 
bsbeamer said:
Terrible timing. Was the Amazon support actually from the AWS division, rather than the Amazon commercial division?

Unfortunately, this may be a "good" business move for Amazon in an attempt to secure government-sector market-share in the future. Depending on the FBI case outcome, there may be local governments "up in arms" about encryption and they will want to put their money where there mouth is... maybe become the next Blackberry-style alternative?
Click to expand...
Why on earth would local, or any governments, want to be anxious to decrypt their data?
 
Dave-Z said:
This would make a great T-shirt!
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And I was thinking last night when reading about the San Bernadino's DA's brief comments that another good T-Shirt would be "Beware of the Dormant Cyber Pathogen, Programmers Unite!"

Regarding Amazon's decision, I read in one of the news articles last night that Amazon reportedly stated that since their users didn't bother to use encryption they didn't see why they should have it. ...Really? Why wouldn't they just make some strong level of encryption a default setting to protect their customers like Apple and others do? And we want Amazon to be flying their drones all over (assume they have cameras to see their way)?? Are they trying to gain favor with the govt to get their drones approved?
 
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Encryption has a performance penalty. Normally on high end androids it's barely noticeable, but since the new Fire tablets are slower than the ones they replaced, they probably took off encryption to eek out as much performance as possible.
 
Aston441 said:
You obviously don't have an Echo. Echo has Apple and Google execs pooping in their pants. Echo is what Siri can't even imagine being in her wildest fantasies.

Never underestimate the power of a good microphone. Apple still hasn't figured that out and continues to put cheap garbage mics in all their products.
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Ah a device in your house that's always listening to you and which has no encryption on it....a black hat hacker's dream. Maybe Apple and Google have something in the works that will offer strong encryption before they would put something like that out. Personally I find a device like Amazon's Echo or IBM's device creepy. I don't need anyone to start ordering things on my behalf and at their discretion of where it comes from or costs.
 
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Gudi said:
Only an idiot would buy a device made by a web order company. Amazon is a distributor, not a computer manufacturer. Their devices were always going to disappoint in one way or another. Weak encryption, no encryption or selling your private data to Facebook and Putin. Nothing would have surprised me, only if Fire OS would work in the best interest of the user.
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As much as I disagree with this move, to diminish Amazon's roll in tech due to their origins as a distribution company is disingenuous. Amazon Web Services disproves your point. You can make points about privacy without artificially lowering the tech focus of that organization.
 
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avanpelt said:
Slow clap for Amazon.

Really bad move considering Fire tablets are used quite often by kids. Wait until the story breaks that people have been spying on kids via the cameras in the Fire. How? Oh, because Amazon decided to drop encryption for Fire OS.

If that ever happens (and I suspect it's only a matter of time), Amazon's tablet business will suffer a huge blow...perhaps a death blow.
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Encrypted devices can still get compromised, if the user installs some malicious software. Don't lose sight of what encryption is. It doesn't protect users from themselves.
 
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philosopherdog said:
Their devices stink big time. Amazon is showing their true colours. Imagine all of the jobs the West will lose in the long run if this weakening of security becomes the norm. The stupid are running the world. It's getting tedious.
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Make America great again. Vote Trump :D
 
Aston441 said:
Never underestimate the power of a good microphone.
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I bet the FBI is happy with Echo too. :p A connected listening device in every living room, ready to be activated remotely whenever they want. If Amazon now proactively removes the encryption from their devices, they are probably eager to comply with other government requests too.
 
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coolfactor said:
Encrypted devices can still get compromised, if the user installs some malicious software. Don't lose sight of what encryption is. It doesn't protect users from themselves.
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Right, but my point is that an unencrypted device is, by its nature, easier to completely compromise. If the device is accessible either remotely or locally, any and all content on the device is completely up for grabs.

Amazon can't say that they're concerned about user security and subsequently do what they've done. My question now is -- what other things might Amazon have done to relax security on Fire devices? Install a "hidden" backdoor along with the new Fire OS update, perhaps?

I don't buy Amazon's response -- "Well, not many of our customers were using encryption so we just completely removed it as an option on our Fire devices." They had to have another reason for making such a drastic move. It's not unlike someone building a house with locks on the doors and the builder quietly monitoring how often the homeowner locks their doors. Then, after seeing that the homeowner only locks their doors 10 percent of the time, the builder comes in unannounced one day and simply removes all the locks from the doors.

I was given a Kindle Fire not too long ago after the family member it belonged to passed away. I toyed with the idea of letting my kid use it. Now, it will either stay put away or I'll sell it.
 
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It's a book reader. Not an open platform compared to iOS and Android.
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Benjamin Frost said:
This news doesn't surprise me.

Bezos and Amazon are curled up with the Obama administration in corruption. That's why their share price is $500, when it ought to be $50.

The day that Bezos is removed from Amazon will be a good day for justice.
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Or a better day for terrorists who had carried out nasty acts who can now save data for other locations and co-conspiritors in peace. Don't blame the "corrupt" and/or "liberals" if another attack happens, because we've been screaming over the lunacy of all this. Even George W Bush was right on occasion, for crying out loud...

Still, Apple, Snowden, anyone who hands sensitive code to other governments with the claim of helping - they're all heroes or traitors or greedy or something else. Does it matter anymore?
 
FireOS is an Android fork, not sure why you labeled it as a book read OS.

And all governments and politicians are corrupt. Just because this is so doesn't mean it doesn't matter. It will always matter, we have just gotten used to it.

ETA: I believe I may have misread your response. Are you saying that terrorists and criminals will find shelter where there is encryption? Oh noes! The bad guys won't be using Amazon anymore :rolleyes:

Until the world ends political correctness, and hand holding, and admits we have a problem with a certain, umm, group of people o_O, no amount of spying or back doors will fix our problems. No diplomacy and no amount of drone attacks will work.

Read about the crusades.
 
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we got a stage fright update before everyone at labs 126 got fired. the amazon fire phone is a total flop. the amazon fire phone does not run and probably will never run fire os 5, so we are okay.

I've had this fire phone for over a year, and its virtual assistant still can't tell me the time
 
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