Good work Tim Cook, too bad you don't give the Chinese people all this "privacy" I wonder why?
I'm a little confused by what you're saying. Apple gives Chinese people
exactly this much privacy. They have access to precisely the same iOS and hardware people anywhere else do. Did you think Chinese iPhones come with a special iOS with a government backdoor?
In fact, it's quite likely that Apple is doing this in part
because they want to continue providing Chinese citizens with privacy.
Currently, Chinese iPhone users get exactly the same security as US users. The Chinese government can't hack an iPhone any more than the FBI can.
If the FBI succeeds in this and demonstrates that Apple can be compelled to use a lockout-bypass tool to hack a phone when a government provides a legal request to do so--and that such a tool has already been created--the Chinese government is nearly certain to ask for the same privilege. Being China, it's also likely that they'll be
far less restrained about which phones they ask to hack. The only thing that's kept them from asking for a back door to date is that other countries had not, either, so it would be somewhat awkward, particularly if Apple (or Google, for that matter) stood up to them.
This isn't personal speculation--there have been major news outlet stories describing exactly this scenario.
Assuming that did happen, Apple would have the choice of giving in and allowing hacks on any phones in Chinese government hands with a court order (which is to say, any phones in Chinese government hands, period, since they can get a court order for whatever they want). Or, alternately, they could say "no" to China (though the logic would be weak, since they were willing to do so for other countries).
In the latter case, it's likely there would be substantial sanctions against Apple, up to and including banning the sale of iPhones nationwide, which would cost Apple on the order of $60 billion in revenue per year.
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Dare I ask other posters and protesters, as a Brit who survived the London Blitz, over 9,000 pilotless V1 bombs and also V2 rockets, sniper and knife attacks on armed forces overseas, and so forth, just how close they have ever come to an enemy or terrorist attack? It sure do sharpen up your mind and your attitudes.
I confess I'm confused as to how the US government's (or another government's) ability to hack a cell phone equates to the London Blitz and a terror campaign of poorly-aimed long-range rockets.
Assuming some of these protestors have lived in New York for a while, it's actually pretty likely some of them
have been exposed to flying objects blowing up buildings near them, though.
I know I haven't, personally, but then that's kind of the point--I've managed to live my entire life safe and sound thus far without any government (or non-governmental entity, since once someone has a key, eventually everyone will get the key) having backdoor access into whatever encryption I decided to employ for whatever reason.
I also know that my father, who certainly did experience people trying to kill him for several years during WWII didn't think he spent his teenaged years getting shot at in a jungle for the sake of a government unconcerned with the information security of its citizens, and those of other nations. He remained quite wary of the US government throughout his life.
One thing that I find odd in all of this is the notion that if Apple
did create this tool, it would magically make every bit of data on some potential terrorist's phone available. Anyone who's actually paranoid about the government getting at their data and is up to no good is just going to use an alternate method of encryption that isn't breakable, unless they're particularly stupid or ill-prepared. So in the end, this would at best potentially sacrifice the privacy of everyone for the sake of getting some information from particularly dumb criminals or terrorists.
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12 phones? Luckily they may have this new software that will give them access to what appears to be at least 13 phones and possibly way more.
Minus the one phone (the owners of which are already dead), the other 12 phones have nothing to do with terrorists. To quote the WSJ, "The letter doesn’t describe the specific types of criminal investigations related to those phones, but people familiar with them said they don’t involve terrorism cases."
So yes, hypothetically one of those phones might contain data that would help catch a murderer or other criminal. But at best, none of them are terrorists. And the only one that was are, apparently, terrorists who would use a phone supplied by their government employer to network with other terrorists.
