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Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

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Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#131

Post by johncolanduoni »

staunch wrote: post #7

> If you buy something from the App Store, we do know what you bought from the App Store, obviously. We think customers are fine with that. Users should also be able to install apps on their iPhones without Apple knowing what they're doing. Personal computing devices shouldn't have artificial walled gardens. But I agree with him on everything else and think he's a hero for what he's doing.

I like the idea of keeping app signing requirements, but giving each user a device-specific signing key if they request one. I don't think a novice user is going to accidentally get the signing key for their device and then sign a malicious app with it.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#132

Post by natch »

It's undeniable that part of this stance is simply asserting that Apple products are designed with user interests in mind. Implying that some other companies have different interests in mind, and sure, you can draw your own conclusions about the products of those companies. Yes, drawing this contrast is a marketing opportunity, and it makes no sense for Apple to pass it up, so Tim doesn't.

But I think just as importantly this stance is about girding for a fight against government-mandated back doors. After some noise about this from parts of the US government, some important people in government have started to come to their senses, but that doesn't mean it's over, whether in the US or with other governments around the world.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#133

Post by takeda »

mozumder wrote: post #109
takeda wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as much legalese but trying to hide a wolf in sheep clothing. They put other legislations around (I did not inspect them, so can't comment) and among them (in the center so person skimming it might miss it) they put: "Cyber Threat Information Sharing Legislation". They don't mention which bills they are referring to and they made sure that acronym doesn't match CISPA. If you search it you will find that ther…

> Why those companies want CISPA? Because it removes all liability from them when they share the data without a warrant. Basically we no longer will be able to sue them for violating our privacy. Nothing in CISPA allows them to violate their EULA. If they had EULAs that violated your privacy in the first place, then that's a problem between you and the company, independent of CISPA.

This is irrelevant. EULA is between company and the user it is also imposed by the company. What they write might not necessarily be enforceable.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#134

Post by reagency »

Amorymeltzer wrote: post #74

>If you're in our News app, and you're reading something, we don't think that in the News app that we should know what you did with us on the Music app — not to trade information from app to app to app to app. I thought this was the most interesting quote in the article. I would've assumed the all Apple products would be colluding together, but Cook seems to be saying that isn't the case. That's actually a pretty big…

That sounds like classic Jobsian tactic of saying everything Apple doesn't do is bad. Similar to how Jobs said smartphones were a bad idea until he got into the market.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#135

Post by gozo »

jolux wrote: post #61
gozo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we have forgotten XcodeGhost already or the iCloud hacks?

Neither of which would be aided by opening the walled garden? Which isn't to say I don't think there are advantages to Android's model and that of more open package repositories in general, especially for power users. However most of Apple's base is people who don't care about openness or extra repositories, they want their iPhone to work with a minimum of fuss and not have to worry about malware like you do on Andro…

The point is that security is not an inherent or necessarily attainable feature of a walled garden. Some people seem to think that just because Apple approves apps there isn't going to be any security issues. The approval process does prevent some security problems, and has some other features, but mobile security overwhelmingly comes from things like sandboxing.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#136

Post by mozumder »

aianus wrote: post #124
mozumder wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the "spying" program that was revealed to have filters to filter out their own citizens communications? Seriously, why do people conveniently ignore this little fact? Why would these filters exist, as revealed in CLASSIFIED documents, if the government were interested in spying on its own citizens? If the government were interested in spying on you, they would just do it. They wouldn't need to build machines…

What difference does that make? Foreigners deserve privacy too.

OK then codify that into a law.

But, right now, the NSA does what is legal, which is to spy on foreign nationals.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#137

Post by mozumder »

takeda wrote: post #133
mozumder wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why those companies want CISPA? Because it removes all liability from them when they share the data without a warrant. Basically we no longer will be able to sue them for violating our privacy. Nothing in CISPA allows them to violate their EULA. If they had EULAs that violated your privacy in the first place, then that's a problem between you and the company, independent of CISPA.

This is irrelevant. EULA is between company and the user it is also imposed by the company. What they write might not necessarily be enforceable.

Great. Then don't agree to those EULAs, and don't use their products/services.

Problem solved.

And we didn't even involve CISPA!

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#138

Post by JustSomeNobody »

larrywright wrote: post #16
staunch wrote: post #7

> If you buy something from the App Store, we do know what you bought from the App Store, obviously. We think customers are fine with that. Users should also be able to install apps on their iPhones without Apple knowing what they're doing. Personal computing devices shouldn't have artificial walled gardens. But I agree with him on everything else and think he's a hero for what he's doing.

I think that what Apple has done here is an acceptable tradeoff. The app store trades a small amount of privacy for a lot more security. Looking at Android's perpetual issues with this makes me think that Apple made the right choice.

I love Apple products, but please stop. Please. Do not be blind to the fact that Apple has to remove apps from the app store often due to security issues. And most of what you hear about on the Android side is either blown up in the media or because people side load apps from ... questionable sources.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#139

Post by JustSomeNobody »

api wrote: post #15
staunch wrote: post #7

> If you buy something from the App Store, we do know what you bought from the App Store, obviously. We think customers are fine with that. Users should also be able to install apps on their iPhones without Apple knowing what they're doing. Personal computing devices shouldn't have artificial walled gardens. But I agree with him on everything else and think he's a hero for what he's doing.

Unfortunately if you remove the walls from the garden you get a malware, crapware, and (ironically given the topic) spyware explosion -- a tragedy of the commons more or less. Mobile devices are used by over a billion people, most of whom don't know much about computers. From the perspective of sleazy marketers and black hat hackers that's a lot of fresh meat. They're better than PCs since they're studded with sensor…

Drama.

Seriously, stop giving the media so much credit. You can trust the Play store as well as you can trust the App store.

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