Apple Denies Knowledge of NSA's iPhone Spying Program

[JayCee842]

Apple is not lying. They have never done anything to betray our trust and confidence, and that is why we love them. We have every reason to believe what Apple has said here is the whole truth.

Just like when Steve lied and denied the iPhone 4 having the antennagate problem?

 

[TsMkLg068426]

I wonder if Apple and the NSA have pics of my Peen, I got nothing to hide.

 

[Popeye206]

You don't think it's "breaking the rules" when the NSA is violating your 4th amendment right in the United States constitution?

From what I understand this is still to be determined. It is suppose to be that they need a court order to run surveillance on anyone in the US… from what's been leaked, it seems that they are monitoring outside the US.

The obvious answer here is there should be a review of this activity and there needs to be accountability if any laws have been broken. Also, there should be a serious update on what's acceptable… we live in a new electronic world very different from as little as 10 years ago.

 

[Todd B.]

So an Ad Hominis attack followed up by some non-relevant examples in form of a false dichotomy.

Are you paid to spread disinformation? Some nice skills there, bro.

It's none of that. There's no real relevant discussion when you started on a premise of fear mongering and delusional hypotheticals.. especially considering there's not been ONE case of that in 200+ years.

I'm just sick of people who have no clue misrepresenting the 4th amendment because they can get page hits and "likes" on some internet message board.

 

[scaredpoet]

This entire thread makes me very depressed.

On one hand: you have individuals who are so ignorant and careless with their "I have nothing to hide" argument, and you simply can't get through to them.

On the other extreme: you have the individuals who are using what has been revealed to further their own political agendas, or extremist conspiracy theories... using a little bit of fact to further myth. Which really perplexes me, considering what IS actually going on should be scary enough.

It is exactly BOTH these types that the NSA and entities with similar goals rely on to marginalize the issue, make it seem stupid an irrelevant, and to muddy the conversation. Between the people with their head in the sand, and those who are embellishing to the point where it's outlandish and improbable, the infighting keeps both sides occupied... while people who are on the fence begin to lose interest, and forget about what's really going on.

And so what happens? Absolutely nothing. Surveillance states get their way. And this is how democracy falls. Not with a bang... but with a lot of silly people fighting their trivial little squabbles.

 

[objc]

Never

I'm glad NSA's capabilities would never be used on people not associated with terrorism.

Thing is, I do have something to hide. I want my private conversations with my wife to be private, hidden from other people, including the NSA. If she's away for a few weeks and we're talking about our sex life on the phone or skype, I don't want some voyeur at the NSA listening in. My private life is none of the government's damn business.

 

[johncrab]

Three Mile Island wasn't nearly as bad as Chernobyl. FACT! We win!

Quite true. TMI was built to much higher standards. The similarity was the backside covering that went on once a problem occurred. Operators tried to wish it away, cover it up and hope both at TMI and Chernobyl. At TMI, a more transparent system allowed information to rattle up and out, reading the desk of the President within minutes. Fortunately, the president had personal nuclear experience in the US Navy, understood what could happen and knew who to call. To this day, he has not blown his own horn about any of that, but he may have kept things form getting a lot worse.

At Chernobyl, they only knew about being beaten up from up top and felt the best way to deal with the problem was not to tell anyone as it got worse. Then a bad design with a flimsy containment building blew up and a plume of radiation covered Europe.

We really do a lot of things better in the US but it's our openness which makes much of it possible. If we all start to fear we are being watched and monitored, we risk clamming up as the Chernobyl staff did and this fear could set us back as a nations and as a culture. It's called "chilling effect" and it is dangerous to an open democracy of any place and any age.

 

[Woyzeck]

I doubt that such large scale operations can be done without the vendor recognizing them or - even worse - the vendor's active support.

If the NSA has manipulated thousands of iPhones this leaves traces. Firmware checksums are changed etc. And some of these devices will randomly make it to engineering support where they're checked and I'm quite sure that it'll be easy to find out that a smartphone's firmware was hacked by applying standard maintenance routine.

Furthermore we now know of some vendors (i.e. for networking components) that actively provided backdoors to their devices, we know that the NSA was successful in manipulating encryption algorithms etc. So they have support from the vendors.

And third we know that all vendors are obliged to deny any cooperation if asked.

The funny part about this is that most networking components and smartphones that are used in the US networks these days come from China. Well, we don't know what they're capable of doing to our infrastructure with just a few clicks.

 

[leroypants]

Now we know why The Obama administrations veto of the Ipad 2 and the iphone 4 ban.

 

[Oletros]

From what I understand this is still to be determined. It is suppose to be that they need a court order to run surveillance on anyone in the US… from what's been leaked, it seems that they are monitoring outside the US.

As, so doing mass surveillance outside USA is acceptable?

 

[dumastudetto]

Just like when Steve lied and denied the iPhone 4 having the antennagate problem?

A ridiculous comparison. Also there was never an actual antennagate problem. Even when Steve gave in and offered free bumper cases, he still reasonably resisted the urge to acknowledge there was a fault. And Apple demonstrated there was no fault in various tests to journalists present at the PR event.

Apple gave away the free bumper cases because they wanted to make confused consumers happy with their devices. That's what Apple always does - goes the extra mile for their loyal customers.

 

[oneMadRssn]

That sketch is ironic. Sometimes if I ring my phone or utilites company when I'm feeling particularly obtuse. This is what happens;

Me : Dials number.
Them : Answers phone and begins scripted answer containing the phrase, "Please be advised that this conversation is being recorded for quality and training purposes, good morning and how can I help you today?".
Me : That's fine. It's only fair to say by the way that I'm recording this too.
Them : Doooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I can't comment about your state's laws, but here in MA it's enough that only one of the parties to a conversation notifies all parties that the conversation is being recorded. Once they tell you they are recording it, you can record it it without giving notice.

 

[Renzatic]

I can't comment about your state's laws, but here in MA it's enough that only one of the parties to a conversation notifies all parties that the conversation is being recorded. Once they tell you they are recording it, you can record it it without giving notice.

Actually, quite a few states only require that one party is aware they're being recorded, and doesn't have to notify the other party of anything.

 

[cwwilson]

And you think we should just be accepting of that fact?

Accepting? Lol, this is the government we're talking about here you don't exactly have a choice. In a post 9/11 world, you have no privacy, you have no rights. You can kiss all that goodbye.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Honestly getting sick of all the lying. Clearly one side is lying. I somehow doubt the leaked documents are lies.

I love Apple but come on...

so you put more trust in the proven-liars CIA than Apple. riiiight.

(just goes to show ya, facts won't slow people down...they believe what they want to believe.)

 

[impulse462]

so you put more trust in the proven-liars CIA than Apple. riiiight.

(just goes to show ya, facts won't slow people down...they believe what they want to believe.)

I trust Apple more. But these documents were leaks. They weren't supposed to be leaks so I'm assuming that these are internal documents. Why would the NSA lie to people within their own department?

 

[BHP41]

I find humorous that all these people are up in arms about the NSA and spying. Yet 80% of them have Google accounts. LMMFAO at you fools.

If any of you people posting "put up your SSN,DL# so on and so on, think for one second that the NSA or federal government don't already have that info. You're living in a ***** dream world. Guess what, they have your fingerprints on file also. OH NO!!!!!



Now, should the NSA have limits. Absolutely. Should they be able to tap and spy on Americans that they have suspicions of terrorist activity. Absolutely. Does anyone really think that the NSA wastes it's time on your boring ass emails or racy text messages to your girlfriend. Get a life, you're not that important. If you are, then you're on their radar.

SMFH

 

[Renzatic]

Now, should the NSA have limits. Absolutely. Should they be able to tap and spy on Americans that they have suspicions of terrorist activity. Absolutely. Does anyone really think that the NSA wastes it's time on your boring ass emails or racy text messages to your girlfriend. Get a life, you're not that important. If you are, then you're on their radar.

Thanks for telling us how it is, dude guy. You're so cool.

 

[patent10021]

Apple just called out the NSA as malicious hackers....

What else should Apple say? We work in tandem with the NSA even on Christmas? The NSA doesn't care. Just confuses everyone more.

It's obvious Apple and everyone else works with the NSA. Come on, wake up. I can't really fault Apple or any other corporation though because they don't have a choice.

Don't you know who the money masters are?

 

[Popeye206]

As, so doing mass surveillance outside USA is acceptable?

To a point… yes, if done for the right reasons. It's not like we're the only ones spying on other countries or groups and people who are a threat. I hope no one here thinks the U.S. is the only one that does this sort of thing.

 

[jkcerda]

As, so doing mass surveillance outside USA is acceptable?

you think they don't try to do that to us?

 

[Glideslope]

As, so doing mass surveillance outside USA is acceptable?

Especially the EU.

 

[winston1236]

If it is true it is never in Apple's good interest to tell the truth. They'll never say it is happening with the knowledge.

Of course they knew about it, they probably do it as a favor to the gov for not bothering them about the Chinese labor issues

 

[Rad99004]

I would think the NDA wouldn't allow them to talk about it anyway.

My observations:

NSA spying blown wide open.

Some companies deny involvement later admit some cooperation with them.

All the companies saying they will encrypt their data and make other changes to prevent access. Wink Wink

NSA hopes this will all blow over, system continues as before.

 

[H2SO4]

I can't comment about your state's laws, but here in MA it's enough that only one of the parties to a conversation notifies all parties that the conversation is being recorded. Once they tell you they are recording it, you can record it it without giving notice.

Possibly. Point I was making though is that people don't like a rule that's fair and applies to both parties regarding privacy.