EU/UK is like:
- we care about your privacy and will not allow censorship.
And the next day this or blocking DeepSeek (in Italy).
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
321–330 of 1001 posts
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#322Not surprised, considering UK's ridiculous key disclosure law (United Kingdom The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), Part III, activated by ministerial order in October 2007, requires persons to decrypt information and/or supply keys to government representatives to decrypt information without a court order.) that makes anyone with high-entropy random data (which is undistinguishable from the crypto-…
This is the way that the UK has passed laws for a while now, make them so broad that they potentially criminalise everyone, then selectively prosecute. This is a very obvious setup for future totalitarianism. I’m surprised that the British public stands for it, but I guess they must not care.
I've tried to explain the issues with the UK government's stance on digital privacy to my friends. The responses I get:
* I have nothing to hide, I don't care
* Oh come on, our government doesn't care what I'm up to
* The UK will never be totalitarian. I'm not scared of the government
* The UK civil service is incompetent and could never pull this off (fair point, although I worry about the safety of my personal data in the hands of such people)
Let's not forget we had a hard-left (Corbyn) socialist regime come close to power, whose cabinet members called for "direct action" against political opponents, just a few years ago.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/watch-john-mcdonnell-s-c...
I don't think people realise how quickly things could go wrong with these surveillance mechanisms in place, and spiteful, authoritarian politicians taking power.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#323> requires that Apple creates a back door that allows UK security officials unencumbered access to encrypted user data worldwide How could this even be enforced if Apple pulls out cloud services of the UK ? It's such a ridiculous request, the British Intelligence agencies must be bored coming up with new ways to make Apple look good.
>How could this even be enforced if Apple pulls out cloud services of the UK ?
Honest question, how Apple is doing it in China? Maybe the exact same scheme will work for UK.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#324[dead]
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#325I don't think the UK government would try to put Apple out of business if they don't comply it's more likely that they would just get heavily fined until they do so. The most likely outcome, I would guess, is that Apple just stop offering Advanced Data Protection as a service in the UK rather than create some kind of backdoor. It's a weak proposition from the government because anyone with something to hide will just…
You're assuming that turning off ADP in the U.K. is sufficient to appease the British Government. The Investigatory Powers Act can also be interpreted to give the U.K. the right to ask for encrypted data from users outside of the U.K. (see Apple making this exact point in a filing here [1].) Turning off ADP in the U.K. doesn't end the controversy if that's what's at stake. [1] https://bsky.app/profile/matthewdgreen.b…
I mean, "Apple refuses to hand over private data to government at cost of UK business" is a pretty good headline.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#326Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42970412
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Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#327This is so disheartening. I thought we were making progress in the anti-surveillance privacy narrative, but this says otherwise. As a UK citizen, is there anything I can do to dissuade this? edit: typo
Let's start supporting parties that have principles.
And stop making excuses for parties that don't (i.e. Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives).
At the moment, the UK public (and media) considers it a sport to disparage and smear parties like Reform, whose leaders want to shrink the power and over-reach of the state.
We are so concerned with appearing virtuous and internationally generous, we cannot be seen to align with a party that wants to put UK citizens first (border security? deporting dangerous criminals back to their home nation? gasp, how could we be so ghastly!)
This self-defeating attitude needs to change if we want a better future for our children.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#328> When asked by The Post whether any government had requested a backdoor, Google spokesman Ed Fernandez did not provide a direct answer but suggested none exist: "Google cannot access Android end-to-end encrypted backup data, even with a legal order," he stated. No, that does not suggest none exists, it only says they don’t have access to it. They could have chosen or have been ordered to give the keys to the governm…
> No, that does not suggest none exists, it only says they don’t have access to it. They could have chosen or have been ordered to give the keys to the government agency but not keep one themselves. The whole definition of "end-to-end encrypted" is that only the two ends have the keys. If anyone or anything other than the two ends (the one sending and the one receiving) has access to the keys, it's not end-to-end enc…
Whatsapp has had end-to-end encryption since 2016. But it only added encryption to cloud backups in 2021. They didn't share any key material with Google, just backed up the messages and media without any encryption to begin with.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#329Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
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