I'm in the U.S and I refuse loyalty to any political party. Both have come up with absolute lies. I may support polititians, but I don't support the entire party.
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Apple Threatens to Pull FaceTime and iMessage in the UK Over Proposed Surveillance Law Changes
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I don’t believe Apple is making an empty threat in this particular case. Don’t forget that they are backed by other big tech companies and all the human rights organizations. I’d rather lose the ability to FaceTime and iMessage than unknowingly have the government snooping around in my ‘private’ data. It’ll probably make me see my friends more in real life. Which imo is not such a bad thing.
Or just made unencrypted as it has been for most of its existence and then very few would notice / care. Also apple aren’t threatening that.
If apple want to make a statement they should threaten to withdraw from the UK entirely. All products and services.
Just because Los Angeles and New York outvoted Atlanta doesn't mean you can bully Atlanta.
In a democracy, you can vote to take someone's house and burn it down. While that is democracy, that's not a form of government anyone would want. Just because you win multiple times doesn't give you license to be a complete jerk.
As a side note, commenters in this thread have offered me the opportunity to utterly wear out the Ignore button.
I’m American, never been to the UK, and do not know British law. However, this seems like a dangerous precedent and power grab if allowed to pass. Say “no,” my British friends!
You clearly don’t have much experience of U.K. politics. That’s exactly how Westminster works.
Great to hear Apple is standing up to this rubbish.
Apple isn't fully pulling out of the market. It's just not going to have Facetime and iMessage there. And I suspect if the UK pushes further they'll remove more stuff. Apple also isn't the only company doing this, in what is being called #internexit
Sorry English people, fight for your rights for your own sovereignty and freedom.
EU can’t help you with this either. What a shame.
EU can’t help you with this either. What a shame.
Not quite sure where you got that information from, but everyone I know when iPhone and there’s plenty of them uses FaceTime and iMessage regularly so don’t always believe what you hear I guess applies here. No matter what English people do and apathy is one of the biggest problems here is the government will completely ignore us anyway after the force we’ve been through in the last few years with so many different leaders coming and going. I don’t blame Apple, but at the same time if Apple do that, I’ll move on because I need a cohesive messaging and video chat service as most of my friends in the UK and abroad have iPhones so we use FaceTime and iMessage a lot.
Without these services having an iPhone without FaceTime and iMessage is pointless to me, no matter how well intentioned and I get the feeling a lot of people will just drop Apple like a stone if they did that sadly. Once the British government gets an idea, they’re not gonna shift and if they feel bullied by Apple, even for the right reasons, they will make that stand even stronger, which is my fear.
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But they didn’t… CSAM isn’t what’s in there. It’s on-device scanning of images that you are sent. No info is sent to a third-party or Apple.
1984 was a better book when it was in the fiction section
Wish more people realized this. Even for politicians this is an increasingly difficult position to take. That’s why it’s looking like somehow even though so few people on either side want it, we may wind up Trump vs Biden in 2024 again. The parties just can’t seem to agree on anyone better, even though the people can think of about a million alternatives in both cases.
This is a big part of the reason I love Apple. Math is hard. Weight loss comes from thermodynamics (calories in minus calories out). The sky is blue. Star Trek is better than Star Wars <ducks>. And back doors in encryption are back doors in encryption that cause security vulnerabilities and can be exploited by the bad guys.
There are authoritarians on both sides of the aisle in every country. You're either free or you're not. E2E encryption, on balance, makes us more free.
There are authoritarians on both sides of the aisle in every country. You're either free or you're not. E2E encryption, on balance, makes us more free.
No, they didn’t. The law prevents unlawful means of protesting; that is where protesters endanger the lives of themselves or others. I.e Marching down a main road and holding up traffic.
That’s not even worth replying to.
Yeah there’s the crucial detail some don’t understand or purposely choose to ignore
The right to peaceful protest still remains, but glueing yourself to the lanes of a motorway isn’t peaceful protest IMO.
protest all you like but don’t disrupt my daily life in the process
The UK is a police state.
Apple says it will pull services including FaceTime and iMessage in the UK if plans to amend surveillance legislation that would require tech companies to make major security and privacy changes go ahead (via BBC News).
The UK government is planning to update the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which came into effect in 2016. The Act of Parliament allows the British Home Office to force technology companies to disable security features like end-to-end encryption without telling the public. The IPA also enables storage of internet browsing records and authorises the bulk collection of personal data in the UK. Due to the secrecy surrounding these demands, little is known about how many have been issued and complied with.
Currently, this process involves independent oversight via a review process and tech companies can appeal before having to comply. Under the proposed update to the IPA, disabling security features without informing the public would have to be immediate.
The UK government started an eight-week consultation process on the proposed amendments to the IPA open to professional bodies, interest groups, academia, and the wider public. Apple has submitted a nine-page-long document condemning many of the changes.
The company opposes the requirement to inform the Home Office of any changes to product security features before they are released, the requirement for non-UK-based companies to comply with changes that would affect their product globally, and having to take action immediately if a request to disable or block a feature is received from the Home Office without review or an appeals process.
Apple also highlighted that some requested feature changes would require a software update, so could not be implemented without public knowledge. The proposals "constitute a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy" that would affect people outside the UK, Apple claims.
The company added that it would not make changes to security features specifically for one country that would weaken a product for all users, suggesting that services like FaceTime and iMessage will simply be removed in the UK if the amendments proceed.
Apple, WhatsApp, and Signal also oppose a clause in the UK's proposed Online Safety Bill that would allow its communications regulator to require companies to install technology to scan for CSAM in encrypted messaging apps and other services. Signal has threatened to leave the UK over the matter.
Article Link: Apple Threatens to Pull FaceTime and iMessage in the UK Over Proposed Surveillance Law Changes
You didn’t, really. There IS lots of anecdotal information here, but as someone who wondered if it was true (and because I have access to the same internet as anyone else here), I did a quick search and found several pages that supported what those posters felt was reality. Some of the information I found even went into discussions as to what may have led to the dominance of WhatsApp and what’s likely to keep it as the preferred messaging platform by far.
I’m sure somewhere out there, there’s a person that thinks most everyone MUST be a member of a country club because everyone they know in their extended circle is in a member of country club. And, even though you can show data that indicates that’s very likely not the case, there’s nothing that would be able to move them from their strongly held belief.
