Let's just say for argument's sake that you are right (which I don't personally believe you are), but let's just say that you are. There are a couple of problems with this: First, Apple does NOT have the decryption keys, that is not the way the system is built. Even if they wanted to or were forced to by the FBI, there is nothing for them to "give up." The entire encryption/decryption system lives inside each individual phone.
Secondly, even if they DID build their system where they (Apple) DID have the decryption keys, every expert I ever read or listened to says that there's a 99% chance that this exploit WILL always end up in the wild, meaning that any hacker out there will be able to get their hands on it and then what? How "Safe" will we be then? What if the terrorists get their hands on it? What then? I'm sure you'd be one of the first to go out there screaming and yelling at Apple with a "How could they let this happen?" rant.
People really need to stop with this "ticking time-bomb" scenario and how this is the only way to stop the next bomb. We have highly capable intelligence and law enforcement officials in this country and use a wide array of tactics to uncover such scenarios (and with a high success rate nonetheless). If this is the ONLY way that authorities can stop the next "ticking time-bomb," then we have a lot more to worry about then our stupid phones. You need to stop watching the TV series 24 and start reading the Bill of Rights.
P.S. And just because we are doing or did nothing wrong or illegal, doesn't give you OR the government the right to know everything about me or anyone else's privacy. You might also want to pick up a history book or two on that subject.
Indeed. Between CALEA and pen registers, "they" can get a warrant to get a wiretap, which occurs within the telephone company, not within the user's iPhone. Note that that is easily thwarted via VoIP apps that use end-to-end encryption, many of which are offered via third-party developers.
Fortunately, this is a defense-in-depth sort of thing. Most bad actors aren't going to be smart enough to use encryption; they'll use the PSTN (or today's digital equivalent), and NSA will snarf up the conversation quite handily.
The remaining tiny fraction who ARE smart enough to use encrypted comms will also be smart enough to jailbreak their phones and install whatever apps they want, so banning encrypted VoIP apps from the app store won't accomplish the goal of "keeping us safe;" all it will do is deny us privacy.
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So? You can already be physically detained, and have your luggage searched. Search my stupid phone, I really don't care. And if you care so much - exactly what are you hiding?
Recently, a NASA engineer, a U.S. citizen with a foreign-sounding name, was forced to unlock his phone. Customs took a complete image of it. There was trade-secret stuff on that phone.
What am I hiding? My financial data, my social network, my personal photos, my Keychain, access to every web login I possess, access to my home network, and on and on. Are you going to seriously tell me that I should trust the same government who
GAVE my SF-86 to China to keep the rest of that private?
Imagine the incredible power terror networks have - all planning data, recordings, maps, all communications, photos, etc. etc. are all safely encrypted. Searching someone's home is a joke - store everything on your phone. All they can get you for are bomb-making materials, that's about it.
I can just see the future tragedies left unsolved - "Sorry, we can't find the killers. No data trail, everything's encrypted". All so that your d*ick pics and lame FB posts are safe...
Any terror network sophisticated enough to use encryption is also sophisticated enough to jailbreak their phones and use an app that the U.S. government doesn't have the keys to. The problem you cite above then still exists, and all of us have given away our privacy for
nothing.
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It would be much better if Apple started bending over backwards to help law enforcement, else there will be consequences for Apple and its users that will be a lot worse for everyone's security.
I ask again: I should trust the same government that gave my SF-86 away to China with a backdoor to my iPhone?
Not. A. Chance.
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Well said. All luggage through the airport must have a lock the TSA can open. Eventually I believe the government will take a similar approach.
This is the same TSA whose employees have been caught stealing from luggage, right?
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You’re making up a fictional doomsday scenario. Good for a laugh, but not really accurate in terms of what’s going on now.
And what are all of the people talking about terrorist doomsday scenarios doing?
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One thing can't be denied: If your child is kidnapped, Apple or Android, you'd be begging the governments to crack that device no matter your postion before. lol
#include <hitchens/razor.h>
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This argument is annoying. You just simply don't take into account the fact that long before there were smartphones, most of the communication wasn't encrypted between two devices you simply cannot access.
I could plan everything on an encrypted phone and nobody could ever find out what i said, who i planned to kill or whatever people do.
So yeah, you can do any detective work you want, but even then you're allowed to break into a safe if you have a reason to, which you can't do with a phone (the equivalent of a numeric safe).
Say you do get into the safe, and all of the documents are written in Navajo.
Now what?
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If your family was killed by a terrorist, and they couldn't solve the crime because all planning data and info was encrypted on iPhones, would you be saying that?
Be honest.
If, in the ten-thousand-times-less-likely-than-a-fatal-lightning-strike instance that my family was killed by a terrorist, and the even-less-likely-case that "they" couldn't solve the crime because all of the planning data and info was encrypted on iPhones, and "they" were too incompetent to make use of the vast amounts of unencrypted metadata that went into generating what's on that iPhone, then yes, I would still be saying that there should be no backdoor.
