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

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

#261

Post by mindfulhack »

I hope I'm not promoting conspiracy theory so much as probability theory.

I don't think we can trust Apple not to have NSA backdoors anymore. We all know about Microsoft's reputation, but Apple may be the slimiest of them all. Everything is closed source and encrypted on the network level, so instead, we have to judge from Apple's corporate and PR behaviour.

Apple care about their branding and profits above all, and not one iota about their customers, truth, or transparency.

Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple had surveillance backdoors in secret, making a complete mockery of the whole 'privacy play' they maintain as a branding differentiator against Google.

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

#262

Post by capableweb »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #216
capableweb wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a website already, try https://hkmap.live Which is why I don't understand the outcry coming from what Apple is doing here.

Does the website work from behind the Great Firewall?

Let's hope so, because probably it was/is being used as the backend for the mobile applications too! Otherwise there is probably mirrors, both the front- and back-end

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

#263

Post by sushicat »

CogitoCogito wrote: post #196
millstone wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spyware is routinely found preinstalled on Chinese branded phones, and Chinese border guards will install spyware on tourists' Android phones. iPhone users are much better protected from this stuff. 1: https://www.cyberscoop.com/android-malware-china-huawei-zte-... 2: https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/03/spyware/

Spyware is also found in iOS in China via iMessage so what’s your point?

If we don’t talk about zero day vulnerability, which may be used by government to spy citizens, iMessage is end to end encrypted and secure.

Chinese local chat app like WeChat, or customized Android from Xiaomi or Huawei, they have back doors, which allow Chinese gov access data directly.

Spyware from unintentional vulnerability vs. intentional back doors are different.

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

#264

Post by xenospn »

panda88888 wrote: post #144

I am not surprised by this. I always thought Tim Cook talks a good talk, but fails to walk the walk when the stakes at hand is real. He’s fine with standing up to the CIA/FBI because he knows it’s good PR for business and the US government cannot do anything without a lengthy court fight that is mostly fair. Same with other US domestic issues such as DACA, sane sex marriage, etc. But when it comes to the PRC governme…

Honestly - Apple could have doubled their prices and gained 90% of the US market if he stood up to China and told the CCP to stuff it. They would have had amazing PR for decades.

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

#265

Post by ladberg »

xenospn wrote: post #264
panda88888 wrote: post #144

I am not surprised by this. I always thought Tim Cook talks a good talk, but fails to walk the walk when the stakes at hand is real. He’s fine with standing up to the CIA/FBI because he knows it’s good PR for business and the US government cannot do anything without a lengthy court fight that is mostly fair. Same with other US domestic issues such as DACA, sane sex marriage, etc. But when it comes to the PRC governme…

Honestly - Apple could have doubled their prices and gained 90% of the US market if he stood up to China and told the CCP to stuff it. They would have had amazing PR for decades.

This is completely untrue.

Most Americans don't care about Apple's relationship with China, and they're probably only losing a fraction of a percent of customers. If Apple doubled their prices, they would lose the majority of their customers.

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

#267

Post by sushicat »

baddox wrote: post #138
colejohnson66 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a crime if it’s being used to physically attack the cop.

Not to mention that laws are different in different countries.

This is a fair point. Laws are different, so procedures can be different. Not to mention the city’s situation is critical - protests - violence from both side.

Following US procedures in HK does not make sense. Companies always obey local laws but not laws in another country.

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

#268

Post by jacobush »

Mindwipe wrote: post #3

Tim Cook is a crook and a moral coward. Single signature signing authorities for software will always be inevitably used for evil, and here it directly has been. Apple does have a choice here. An easy one. It could remove the requirement that all iOS apps have to be signed to run on Apple devices. Simple. And at that point the Chinese government have no further way to blackmail them. But Apple has decided it's future…

At this point I would think the Chinese government would take such an action as "defiance". If Apple is worried Chine might close its supply chains, opening up side loading would really piss them off.

Plus it's just not in the DNA of Apple to do side loading. Goes against the grain of everything.

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

#269

Post by baddox »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #191
rdiddly wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the same commenter, but it seems like the lengthy protestations of disinterest are a reaction to the prevailing online climate of exactly the kind of paranoid hysteria embodied in, for example, the assertion that anyone playing devil's advocate is probably on the devil's side so to speak. Being able to hold and consider multiple contrary or incompatible positions simultaneously is in fact a sign of a fairly sophi…

Even the devil's advocate [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_advocate ] is supposed to cite facts and reason properly -- not claim a falsehood in support of the devil, which misrepresenting the article is. You can't just precede anything with "just playing devil's advocate for a moment" and make it immune from scrutiny, that's the intellectual equivalent of "just a prank". From the WP article, emphasis mine: >…

I welcome scrutiny, and I disagree with this particular scrutiny.

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

#270

Post by baq »

dilippkumar wrote: post #188
artfulhippo wrote: post #2

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…

Your comment has made a really really deep impression on me. For the past several years, I’ve been a hardcore Apple loyalist only for their stance on privacy and security. It’s time to stop being deluded. I’m going to stop paying premium for apple and assume all my devices are hostile by default. What the actual fuck Apple.

I never trusted Apple, the problem is that I think they're still the best of the lot :/
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