Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Will Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Install Backdoors for Australia?

news.ycombinator.com

21–24 of 24 posts

Re: Ask HN: Will Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Install Backdoors for Australia?

#21

It's an interesting situation. I wonder if Apple will bend over and give up user's privacy, or will exit Australian markets. Google and Amazon will definitely sell out the users. (and I'm not an Apple user)

Apple already operate data centres in China without privacy controls - seemingly happy to provide full government access in exchange for access to a lucrative market. Google currently have no operations in China.

Apple's users in China don't have an expectation of privacy. Chinese consumers have never had a web service offer privacy, and therefore don't expect it. Apple running a priavcy-less service in China isn't violating the users expectations, as long as they don't ever claim it's private or secure.

Australian users however do expect privacy. They do expect that their chat messages will only be read by the recipient and not the government.

Re: Ask HN: Will Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Install Backdoors for Australia?

#22
post #3

Well, Google wanted to run their software in China until their employees disagreed :) So maybe it depends on the employees? Either way, anything we'd comment would just be speculation.

They are looking at ways to clamp down on leaks and stuff internally from what I hear. They will just get better at hiding projects from the employees going forward.

Compartmentalization has worked for intelligence agencies looking to stop their agents from putting the whole moral puzzle together.

Why not Google?

Re: Ask HN: Will Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Install Backdoors for Australia?

#23

It's an interesting situation. I wonder if Apple will bend over and give up user's privacy, or will exit Australian markets. Google and Amazon will definitely sell out the users. (and I'm not an Apple user)

Apple already operate data centres in China without privacy controls - seemingly happy to provide full government access in exchange for access to a lucrative market. Google currently have no operations in China.

Apple servers in China are accessed by the same clients as Apple servers in the US. They don’t get to see the things Apple servers in de US don’t get to see.

They get to see a lot and what happens with that is up to the Chinese government, just as it is up to the US government what happens to what the US servers see.

Re: Ask HN: Will Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Install Backdoors for Australia?

#24

It's an interesting situation. I wonder if Apple will bend over and give up user's privacy, or will exit Australian markets. Google and Amazon will definitely sell out the users. (and I'm not an Apple user)

Apple already operate data centres in China without privacy controls - seemingly happy to provide full government access in exchange for access to a lucrative market. Google currently have no operations in China.

Not really. They offloaded those data centers to 3p controllers. They refused backdoors publicly for the US, so likely they'd either exit publicly or create an "Aussie iCloud" like china.
Post reply on HN