Coming from a man who created aptly named "Windows", where FBI never needs to ask for access.
Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
31–40 of 106 posts
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#32Is anyone doubting apple unlocked the iPhone? I don't understand B Gates stance. of course they did unlock and give it to the police. of course they will never say it in a PR and we all know why. Is anyone doubting that we are now living in a world where EVERY one of us is a potential suspect being processed in a set of crappy ML algorithms and stats where our faces, fingersprints, RFID cards are being captured at every instant of our lives? and don't worry IOT is coming. Alexa is already the premise of HAL except that the AI that controls the world will never happen. Much worse will happen. People that do not care about mankind or freedom will listen to our every moves, every instant of our lives.
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#33well, what a coincidence, I guess MS phones aren't selling well, so let's undermine competition a bit.
not for a second do I suspect mr gates to be stupid or not comprehending situation in full detail, with all possible consequences. and here I thought that he went from most hated IT guy on this planet in '90s to somebody actually concerned about good of the mankind. can somebody shed some light what would be his true motivations for these statements?
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#34>"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records,” he said. “Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’." Seriously? It's absolutely different (not to mention his ribbon analogy makes no sense at all).…
The reality is that Apple already has unfettered access to this device: they left themselves a backdoor to which only they have the key, in the form of a "secure" update mechanism that is so "secure" that even the user can't control it, only Apple can. To me the actual question here is whether the FBI should be allowed to ask and then force Apple to use the backdoor Apple built into their product; Apple painting this…
> from the perspective of Apple, as nothing more than a ribbon, as Apple already has "unfettered access to [your] data"
No! Since iOS8 Apple intentionally encrypts the user's data on the phone in a way that even they don't have access to them.
They have access to the hardware, to be able to reconfigure it, but not the encrypted data on the phone. Because the data is encrypted, intentionally so.
And they have access to the iCloud backup data and they gave that data to the FBI. Then FBI actually locked their access to the phone by changing the iCloud password.
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#35>"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records,” he said. “Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’." Seriously? It's absolutely different (not to mention his ribbon analogy makes no sense at all).…
The reality is that Apple already has unfettered access to this device: they left themselves a backdoor to which only they have the key, in the form of a "secure" update mechanism that is so "secure" that even the user can't control it, only Apple can. To me the actual question here is whether the FBI should be allowed to ask and then force Apple to use the backdoor Apple built into their product; Apple painting this…
This is completely upside down. Can all Apple haters for once put down their haters' hat and try and be reasonable for the good of everybody?
You phrased all that just to get to the conclusion that Apple is an over-controlling company imposing rules on otherwise super tech savvy users. Well sorry to break the news for you, but people decide on their own which smartphone to buy.
Globally, most of the time, it's an Android phone. Globally, most of the time, it's an OLD and cheap Android phone, with firmwares so old and so full of holes that calling it insecure would be an euphemism.
But hey, I suppose they're much better off, since they can DECIDE what phone to buy, right? It's certainly not their income deciding for them... Better, they can even root it! Make it even more insecure! Install pirated software that hides malware and will steal their ids or their money! Now THAT's choice and power to the user!
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#36>"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records,” he said. “Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’." Seriously? It's absolutely different (not to mention his ribbon analogy makes no sense at all).…
The reality is that Apple already has unfettered access to this device: they left themselves a backdoor to which only they have the key, in the form of a "secure" update mechanism that is so "secure" that even the user can't control it, only Apple can. To me the actual question here is whether the FBI should be allowed to ask and then force Apple to use the backdoor Apple built into their product; Apple painting this…
Sure. It's a Backdoor that only you and Apple know of. Right?
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because people are allowed to have their own opinion? I don't agree with him, but I certainly don't base my opinion on this matter on the general sentiments in Silicon Valley. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the best thing that Apple, Google, and everyone else can do is to make sure that it's impossible for them to comply with future versions of the OS.
Bill Gates is well aware that people will take this, not as his personal opinion, but as the opinion of Microsoft. He could have made it it clear that this was his personal opinion and not related to the Microsoft position, but he did not.
Most people outside the tech industry don't pay attention to what Bill Gates, Tim Cook, or anyone else in the tech industry says. Those in the industry are hopefully smart enough to recognize that Bill Gates saying something doesn't mean that Microsoft is necessarily in agreement with it.
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#38>"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records,” he said. “Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’." Seriously? It's absolutely different (not to mention his ribbon analogy makes no sense at all).…
> I see all of this more a question of "can Americans actually have anything remain private on a commercial device?". It's Americans now, but if Apple gives in, investigators from other big markets might pressure Apple to do the same for them. I think that's what's meant with cutting the ribbon many times.
This debate is global. Why is it so hard to understand for most politicians? It's a matter of national security because the matter is not strictly national, and could have reverberation all over the world, especially in very sensitive markets like China.
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#39I do not understand why Bill Gates would take a contrary position to Silicon Valley / tech community on this issue. Any insight into why he is taking this stance? What I have found even more confusing is why the FBI hasn't asked the NSA for help. The NSA's thousands of skilled hackers simply can't break into an old iPhone?
Because the US government is Microsoft's biggest customer by a country mile. Hand that feeds you and all that. The FBI already have the info they need, don't need nsa's help, this is purely about setting a precedent.
Gates is not in charge of Microsoft anymore... and hasn't been for a long while.
Actually, my best hypothesis is that, remembering that the Gates Foundation, which is the organization Gates is actually involved with now, works a lot in government/policy circles, Bill himself might have views that are more common within that circle that within the tech community. Whether that means that he is taking this point because he has more information, less information or just different priorities, I do not know. I don't even remember if Gates took any position on the original crypto wars.
I personally find that the balance of arguments weights much heavier on the side of security and privacy, versus surveillance, and that creating this tool and setting this particular precedent would do more harm than good. I can still imagine a world in which Gates disagrees with that without being knowingly evil, though.
Actually, when it comes to Gates in particular, I admit that when I was younger I spent a long time thinking of him as "knowingly evil" (or at least selfish to a extreme degree) for completely different reasons. Later I realized that he might have simply put priority on different ethical axioms than my high-school self did... and in the balance of things might end up having been a higher positive force in the world than a negative one, by far, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria#Eradication_efforts . This doesn't mean I agree with him on the issue at hand, though.
Re: Bill Gates Says Apple Should Unlock the iPhone
#40>"It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records,” he said. “Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’." Seriously? It's absolutely different (not to mention his ribbon analogy makes no sense at all).…
The reality is that Apple already has unfettered access to this device: they left themselves a backdoor to which only they have the key, in the form of a "secure" update mechanism that is so "secure" that even the user can't control it, only Apple can. To me the actual question here is whether the FBI should be allowed to ask and then force Apple to use the backdoor Apple built into their product; Apple painting this…
Fair points, though to be fair the iOS platform is by and large the most secure mobile platform we have (please correct me if I'm wrong, you absolutely know better than I). Still, as long as the backdoor remains, it will always be possible to carry out malicious updates like this.
As far as I understand the secure enclave has been updated a couple times since it's introduction, so I legitimately hope this was a v1, with secure enclave v2 (without update functionality) waiting to be released in Sept.
As a side-note - one of the things I struggle with is I'm not convinced that Apple really had a tangible reason to make it as secure as it is, especially when their main competition was android, which is fairly laughable with security thanks to the OEMs.