Apple, Tim Cook and Others Sued Over Alleged NSA/PRISM Privacy Violations

[maxosx]

Ah yes... just another day, another opportunity to ponder: is there anyone at the helm? Anyone that can remember the facts about anything that's occurred in recent times. Anyone know the meaning of accountability, responsibility, or leadership? Anyone home? Is there a leader in that big white building? Must be time to go out and survey the golf courses & various vacay venues... ha..ha...ha...

 

[50548]

You know that insulting people for not* voting for him will make them less likely to vote for him?

Doesn't matter - the "system" would never let him win anyway.

 

[xcodeaddict]

I can't stand this compensation society - grow up and get on with your life, and stop squandering it chasing "rights" - enjoy the life God has blessed you with - enjoy what you have, quit complaining about everything you don't have and what EVERYONE ELSE is doing wrong, and stop being so greedy!

Silly America.

 

[street.cory]

I think they should add anyone that had anything to do with passing the Patriot Act.

 

[arcite]

Just more billable hours for the Apple legal team!

 

[xcodeaddict]

Why not just sue every company in the world? That would be funny!

 

[Thunderhawks]

I'm not at all surprised at this action. More to come.

Yep, he forgot to sue SAMSUNG!

 

[xcodeaddict]

Yep, he forgot to sue SAMSUNG!

... and ZTE, and Huawei, and ....

 

[Yixian]

Throw the book at them, no amount of innovation or sleek products matters in the face of human and civil rights.

 

[charlituna]

I'm not at all surprised at this action. More to come.

I'm not surprised by them trying but it won't go very far since they can't prove Apple is lying about being a part of it or that the government is lying about the context of those slides.

 

[kd5jos]

I think you're confused

to be sued, you have to break a law
which law was broken? not like the NSA did this on their own. where did they get the money?

First, a lawsuit does not follow criminal law, it's a civil tort. You sue because you feel you have been wronged. There is a lower level of proof that is required. In a criminal conviction, the idea is "beyond a reasonable doubt," you can be incarcerated, or you could be executed. In civil cases you are looking for a preponderance of evidence (more than 50% chance), the burden of proof can be shifted to the defendant (like with a prima facie case), and there is NO chance of incarceration.

So, with that in mind why the case? See the second amendment, obviously the plaintiff feels it was violated.

 

[Popeye206]

Let's hope that this lawsuit is successful

Why? Apple, Google and others are just doing what they are told... it's the government who is at fault... the companies are trying to help national security and it's our US government who is abusing this right.

The whole thing is silly... stupid and a waste of time pursuing the wrong people.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

"unconstitutional"

Why the quotes? That's not opinion, it's fact. If the NSA is doing what is being alleged, it is in fact blatantly and indisputably unconstitutional.

The only possible defense they can have is demonstrating that they weren't doing what is alleged.

 

[krye]

The balls. I think Larry Klayman will be lucky to get a job at Walmart when this is over. The President? Seriously? Why don't you just sue the whole government? Lawyers. They make me sick. This guy's just looking for free press.

 

[charlituna]

to be sued, you have to break a law

No you don't. You just need someone that thinks you did something wrong even if it is currently legal.

 

[Lark.Landon]

Why? Apple, Google and others are just doing what they are told... it's the government who is at fault... the companies are trying to help national security and it's our US government who is abusing this right.

The whole thing is silly... stupid and a waste of time pursuing the wrong people.

No, it's not silly, stupid or a waste of time. The PRISM program is a violation of our constitional rights. If the lawsuit is successful it will set a legal precedent that multinational corporations will remember.

 

[Yixian]

The balls. I think Larry Klayman will be lucky to get a job at Walmart when this is over. The President? Seriously?

You do realise how undemocratic your mindset is right?

In a democracy, your leaders work for you, when they pull this kind of stunt, they answer to you.

 

[Small White Car]

Any company which willingly goes along with terrible gov't regulations to build in gaping wide backdoors to everything in the servers, cell phones, devices, that can activate cams, microphones and track GPS by the second deserves to be sued and lose their consumer confidence.

I am happy there are people suing every company involved and the gov't.

For a company to go along with unconstitutional laws, or in some cases FCC regulations, without fighting them, they ought to get hit hard for selling their customers out.

Are you willing to go to jail by saying no to the government?

That's what you're saying here...that Tim Cook should have said "Ok, throw me in jail."

So I'm asking, if it happened to you at your job, is that the choice you would have made?

EDIT:

And in case you think I'm making stuff up, here's a man who did say no to this kind of thing and is still in jail for it, 6 years later:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2013-June/008815.html


What happened to Joseph Nacchio is a crime and a stain on this country. For you to not say "that's wrong" but rather to say "Yeah, that's what Tim Cook should do too" is just horrifying to me. We need to be stopping this, not encouraging more of it as the solution.

 

[i.mac]

Rand Paul. The most opportunistic self serving bastard the world has ever seen. What an ignorant idiot.

 

[nishishei]

Are you willing to go to jail by saying no to the government?

That's what you're saying here...that Tim Cook should have said "Ok, throw me in jail."

So I'm asking, if it happened to you at your job, is that the choice you would have made?

Did it occur to you that it's wrong for the government to say "give me all your customers' information, or you're going to jail"?

That's what Putin does.

Try again, little sycophant.

 

[Mrg02d]

It's about time the people say no to the BS our government is growing.

Federal government can't ask a business to do something that is unconstitutional. Obama is a lawyer, he should have known better. Oh wait, he did!

 

[reckless2k2]

There's nothing to see here. *Jedi hand wave* Move along please.

 

[tirk]

The US governments' argument is that only foreigners are investigated so that's OK. The UK government hasn't yet managed to pass the legislation that allows them to trawl this information on our own citizens....but it's fine to "share" the data the US government has on them.

Expect the next revelation to be that the UK GCHQ is trawling US citizen's data, because that's fine in the UK, and of course they will share it with the US....

The revelation after that will be that the data has been sold to Coca-Cola, or stolen by Ukrainian phishing crews...

Legislation is an inconvenience easily avoided by governments these days. Well, 1984 is in the past now I guess, but the war on nouns drags on.

 

[Mrg02d]

Are you willing to go to jail by saying no to the government?

That's what you're saying here...that Tim Cook should have said "Ok, throw me in jail."

So I'm asking, if it happened to you at your job, is that the choice you would have made?

Good thing George Washington didn't think like you...

 

[tzeshan]

Why former President Bush is not on the list? I think he initiated this thing in the first place.