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It's worse than that. I think it was around 2016 when the UK government brought a "Snooper's Charter" into law. For a number of years now the UK government are permitted by law to insist that device manufacturers implement any technical means to permit government snooping on user data. But it gets worse. Affected companies are not permitted to disclose that any such demand has been made of them. So, we've been flying blind for a few years now. UK Gov could have exfiltrated arbitrary amounts of private data with Apple's assistance, and Apple would not be permitted to let us know.
Wow, that’s unbelievable scary. When are we going to say “enough is enough”?
 
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?
This government is still protecting their corrupt, criminal former leader who is refusing to hand over his own WhatsApp messages to a government enquiry despite being ordered by a court to do so. And he hasn't been arrested or anything.
So maybe if they want to use this lame argument, they should set a better example first.

iMessage and FaceTime aren’t that popular in the UK, it’s not much of a factor in opting to buy Apple devices.
iMessage is enormously popular. FaceTime maybe not so much.
 
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?

"Show me the Man Phone, I'll show you the Crime."
 
95%?

i know the Mirror and Guardian are on the labour side.
i'm not sure if the others would make 95%

View attachment 2235031

View attachment 2235033

there are also regional variations.
Daily Record - Labour
The Scottish Sun - usually sides with the one that is more popular
The Herald - Labour
What percentage of papers sold? Independent has drifted right in recent years, FYI, and surveys suggest less than 20% of people view the Mirror as favouring Labour, despite the claims.
 
iOS market share doesn’t matter. You can install WhatsApp on an iPhone and what’s what people use.

Yes, WhatsApp would also be affected but what people are saying is that the threat to pull iMessage isn’t that impactful because only a minority of people in the UK use it regularly.
So if Meta makes a threat to pull WhatsApp out of the UK market, that might derail the UK government’s new regulation.
 
once privacy isn't the hot potato it is right now they'll drop it quicker than Ping

Really?

You mean like they did when the United States FBI demanded Apple unlock an iPhone owned by a criminal engaged in a crime? Apple steadfastly refused, was taken to court, and ultimately prevailed by not unlocking the phone after the government dismissed the case. Apparently the government found another way to get access. Apple subsequently used that opportunity to further strengthen iPhone security.
 
what's that? being annoying, strike at a moments notice, and generally burn the place down?
Holding their government accountable, yes !
What’s their medical system like ? Retirement age? Parental leave policies? Average weekly hours? Happiness on the quality of life index?
 
If this happens, the iPhone loses two unique features that could drive people towards Chinese-made Android phones because why pay the Apple tax if all phones are now the same? Way to let the Chinese government spy on your citizens!
 
People around the world need to wake up.

The government creates more problems than it solves.
Government is a facade, a system that people in power hide behind it so when policies fail the population say that the government, the party, the left, or the right failed but they don't question the system in place. So they wait for the next election to vote for the next disappointing party or leader, left or right. Meanwhile the general population always end up paying for the entire bill.
 
All of which supports the notion that iMessage and FaceTim would not be missed too much in UK or Europe. As you write, about 50% already don't have them now, and those that do also use WhatsApp already, in some cases even as the dominant protocol.
As a result, Apple probably won't lose sales if they dropped these two services, there will be grumbling, but not more.
And what if WhatsApp bails also?
 
can you name any they haven't?
it's easy to counter something without anything to back it up.

prove me wrong by giving examples.

see post 145 of something they backed down on. they wanted to go ahead with CSAM as i understand it, but backed down after the negative public reaction. money talks at the end of the day, their shareholders will make sure of that.

let's not forget, the EU are also thinking about this as well, as apple willing to discard 450 million potential customers on top of 70 million potential UK customers? whatsapp are voicing to the EU about it recently.
Absolutely. They have moved forward on many privacy-related projects as well as their business model. Cook has come out multiple times since his initial comments about cybersecurity in 2016. He has spoken about government intervention to try and enforce a back door and has put that to pay every single time, whilst still respecting the need for information sharing. As far as actual examples of them not backing down?
  • The very public fight to keep the App Store as the sole distributor of Apps. (I know you’ll argue that is purely a $ thing, but we all know there are dangers in side loading and only an idiot would deny that). Whichever, they haven't backed down.
  • Advanced Data Protection. E2EE on iCloud has only increased, whilst Government wants to intercept messages and other data, and can legally subpoena the iCloud backup, it’s getting a lot harder to access the data. If you don’t have it turned on (it's not on by default) then you probably should.
  • Contact Key Verification advising if a bad actor has somehow gained access to messages, FaceTime, etc.
  • They've clearly also consistently backed themselves on combining across device functions whilst competitors lag in this area. People often complain about the way they do things, sometimes because it doesn't suit a particular user base (audiophiles, content creators, or whatever) but they keep going with it. Occasionally they change things to suit, and that's the market driving that, not backing down. In the same way, they have changed the landscape with regard to these things already (120 fps 4K Video on iPhone for example). It was Apple who introduced making movies with a smartphone.
  • They are protecting their business model on the App Store against a lot of backlash for better or worse. Although, they are compromising to stave off intervention from Governments.
These are examples of Apple doubling down on security and its business model and certainly not backing down. As far as backing down, CSAM or Neural Hashing was an example of trying to do the right thing to protect and help people, but through enough paranoia by people who either don’t understand the tech or don’t trust Apples attempt to work with law enforcement, Apple decided to concentrate on protecting on device and cloud data.

Sometimes companies as large as Apple are able to make claims such as shutting down iMessage etc. If they decide not to, it may be because they are posturing. They may not ever intend to go ahead with this, but as you say, money talks and so do a user base (electoral base) who have direct influence over governments. I guarantee governments are much more fickle about power than Apple is about money.

Any other examples of Apple reversing their decision other than CSAM? Didn't think so.
 
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The current Conservative government in the UK is the most self-serving and corrupt in history.
True, they're Conservative in name only, however god forbid Labour get into power, then we'll really see self serving & corrupt. All the Conservatives have to do is replace Sunak(Globalist's puppet on a string) with a proper Conservative Leader!
 
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Which is generally met by others in Europe saying thats not true at all. I'm UK and barely use Whatsapp bar a couple of group threads for things. Everything else is iMessage or just normal SMS.
I'm in the UK and I only use iMessage & Face Time, except with my clients wheRE I use WhatsApp to keep business separate from my private messages.
Having said that, this legislation affects all E2E platforms and WhatsApp have said the same as Apple.
No doubt in the end they will all find a compromise 😊
 
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