U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#11

Post by hyperbovine » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:37 PM UTC

I am actually encouraged by this. I feel like 8-10 years ago they would have never even bothered complaining to the press--just swooped in with some invisible court order and forced tech companies to do their bidding, with (of course) no ability to publicly disclose any of it.

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#12

Post by eli » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:37 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #6

Google and Apple's marketing teams must be relishing this. I'm guessing it's very dangerous in their departments right now with the champagne corks flying everywhere.

I doubt that. I'm sure they anticipated this response, but I think you greatly underestimate how many people subscribe to the "nothing to hide" theory of privacy and/or are genuinely worried this might aid pedophiles or terrorists.

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#13

Post by ary » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

Outside of having a plethora of security experts audit and certify these services I'd say this is about as close as you can get to a ringing endorsement. The only way it gets better is if other governments follow up with the same complaints.

Ultimately I'm pleased that this kind of thing even makes the news. Ideally government becomes almost totally transparent and private matters become nearly opaque (there will always be the investigative aspect of law enforcement). Any reasonably sharp person can now see that the exact opposite is happening. Governments are demanding an ever increasing amount of secrecy while simultaneously requiring that the public give up all hope of privacy. Just to have had this idea escape the realm of conspiracy theory seems like a miracle to me.

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#14

Post by eli » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

Afforess wrote: post #4

What a terrible article. Excerpt: They have created a system that is a free-for-all for criminals So we should give up all rights to privacy to help catch criminals? What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law Maybe that says more about your laws than the desire for privacy?

Including quotes detailing a position you disagree with doesn't make an article terrible.

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#15

Post by AndrewKemendo » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

James Soiles, a deputy chief of operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the stakes in resolving the dispute are high.

Stakes for who? For LEA of course they are, they make the job much harder.

Maybe this will help end the drug war and some of the other silly things we do.

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#16

Post by biafra » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:40 PM UTC

I have full disk encryption enabled on my Mac since Lion. Why is it such a big deal that I have it on my phone too? Or am I missing something and the keys to my computer storage are leaked to Apple somehow?

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#17

Post by djyaz1200 » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:40 PM UTC

"Well I ain't passed the bar but I know a little bit, enough that you won't illegally search my shit!" -Jay Z

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#18

Post by eli » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:41 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #10

happyscrappy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple and Google know that they will be losing customers, more and more Until they actually do lose some customers this silly meme should die. Where are these customers allegedly going, back to dumb phones?

[deleted]

No, I have not noticed that. What's their market share?

Re: U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

#19

Post by cwal37 » Tue, Sep 30, 2014, 5:41 PM UTC

This seems like one of the most obvious media presses I've ever seen. I can't decide whether it's good to see the press that security is getting, and have the same terrible LE quotes show up, or bad that there is such widespread dissemination that LE is unhappy about this and hey if you're a good citizen you will buy a phone we can more easily unlock.

Here are the same or similar articles:

-WSJ 8[1] and 5[2] days ago

-Washington Post 5 Days ago[3]

-NYTimes 4 days ago[4]

-TIME 3 Days ago[5]

-Fortune 3 days ago [6]

[1] http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-level-of-smartphone-encry...

[2] http://online.wsj.com/articles/fbi-director-raises-concerns-...

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-chief-new-phone-e...

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/technology/iphone-locks-ou...

[5] http://time.com/3437222/iphone-data-encryption/

[6] http://fortune.com/2014/09/27/apple-and-the-fbi-re-enact-the...