Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

daringfireball.net

11–20 of 388 posts

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#11
post #6

hacker news admins should investigate the downvote patterns on articles critical of china ...there seems to be a very strong downward pressure on articles critical of china — so much that i suspect there may be a down vote ring..

I dunno man. A couple days ago 20 percent of the front page was anti China.

Also, HN explicitly will remove posts that offer nothing but flamewar bait. Both algorithmically and manually.

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#12
This is honestly the most disappointing part of this entire saga. That Apple’s leadership realized that this is an issue, that the company’s employees do too, and that they think it’s appropriate to send out an email to placate the company but contains no real information and falls apart immediately if you look at it for longer than a couple seconds.

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#14
> In this case, we thoroughly reviewed [the facts], and we believe this decision best protects our users.

When I read Tim Cook's letter, this line at the end jumped out to me as super off. Even if everything else was completely true, how would this decision protect Apple users? Unless all the police have iPhones?

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#15
post #6

hacker news admins should investigate the downvote patterns on articles critical of china ...there seems to be a very strong downward pressure on articles critical of china — so much that i suspect there may be a down vote ring..

Among other things, you can't downvote articles.

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#16

Apple caved under pressure from China. The explanation Cook gave is not just an embarrassment, it calls into question the veracity of all of his other statements. Why should users believe that (closed source) iMessage encryption is free from backdoors when we know that Cook will dance around sensitive truths? And why should the US government be satisfied with a fully encrypted iMessage given that Apple will cave to d…

Because Apple has already gotten away with giving the US government the finger over cracking iPhones at the request of the FBI and they backed down.

American politicians are in their pocket. Chinese not so much.

Users buying what you’re asking on the other hand :man-shrugging:

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#18
It's entirely plausible that the Hong Kong police have assembled a documented narrative of incidents of crime and abuse. The call for evidence into what might be a handful of cases isn't interesting.

What is unconvincing is that an app's potential to be used with crime is sufficient for people to understand Mr. Cook's bright-line, process, or thinking around the matter.

This app was likely being used in ways which critically supported the mitigation of risk to life, a fact which Mr. Cook described only as "benign"; the failure to discuss the balance against the app's relation to public health, and the failure to frame the nature of Hong Kong police and law, makes any attempted weighing suggested by Mr. Cook to be of low credibility as a lens into his process.

Presumably Google Maps, Search, and other apps also facilitates crime at a magnitude well beyond the app in question, but how does the weighing work?

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#19
post #9

Can I play devil's advocate for just a moment? Gruber asks for evidence. His only complaints seems to be the lack of evidence and a question of whether the app violates local (Hong Kong) law. Cook's memo directly addresses both of those issues: > However, over the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that…

My first question is whether the "Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau" is a reliable source of information under the current circumstances. I haven't been reading all the news about the Hong Kong protests, but what I have been reading suggests that China is applying an enormous amount of pressure to halt the protests, or reduce the international visibility of what is happening in Hong Kong.

It doesn't seem to me to take much of a leap of faith to think that China is applying pressure on the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau to get this app removed.

Re: Tim Cook’s Company-Wide Email on Hkmap.live Doesn’t Add Up

#20
post #9

Can I play devil's advocate for just a moment? Gruber asks for evidence. His only complaints seems to be the lack of evidence and a question of whether the app violates local (Hong Kong) law. Cook's memo directly addresses both of those issues: > However, over the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that…

Would it not make more sense, in such a highly charged political environment, that Apple should tie their own hands and only remove the app at the mandate of a court order?

That would make it obvious that Apple is complying with law, and that they haven't "bowed to pressure" from either side.

If there is a claim that the app is violating law, then that should be validated by a judicial process, not by the operating nuances of a company.

If Apple are receiving reports from users that the law is being broken, they should be passing those on to law enforcement, and publicly complying with the response, not acting as their own arbitrator.

Post reply on HN