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UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

arstechnica.com

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Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#341

Post by te_chris »

Too many people here going on about UK politicians which, while problematic, seem mostly powerless in the face of a completely toxic department in the Home Office.

This sort of shit is pure Home Office authoritarian bullshit and the culture there is such that it perpetuates. They seem to be particularly skilled in getting MPs to side with their world view, but it is the Home Office leading this, not the MPs.

See the proscription of Palestine Action for a textbook example of Home Office bullshit.

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#342

Post by prasadjoglekar »

pabs3 wrote: post #331
ethbr1 wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK citizens don't have a constitutional right to free speech, which tends to bleed over in unhealthy ways to the government prioritizing its own interests over citizens'.

How does free speech guarantee privacy?

Encryption itself is a form of speech. Therefore the govt can't force you to decrypt.

Guarantee is too strong of a word, but this is the concept.

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#343

Post by aydyn »

slavik81 wrote: post #327
aydyn wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and regardless the point is its some extremely niche author. The vast majority of anglophones aint gonna know him.

The author of V for Vendetta, Watchmen, 300, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Yes lmao. You think those are literary classics in the same vein as Shakespeare or something?

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#344

Post by ExoticPearTree »

wkat4242 wrote: post #57
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just seems very unrealistic wishful thinking that Europe would suddenly become good at these kinds of software after spending the last few decades being bad at it.

It's a lot easier now because there's a huge demand all of a sudden for local services. Previously it was hard to compete with the US because the lack of regulation there and investors in the EU having more expectations rather than just throwing money at the wall and hoping it sticks. But with the exploitative business models like Google's consumer tracking and now with Trump and his trade wars the US is no longer vi…

> It's a lot easier now because there's a huge demand all of a sudden for local services.

Talk is cheap. People say they want local services up to the point someone offers local services and no one will buy them because they are not the same as what "BigTech" offers.

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#345

Post by gdwatson »

dvtkrlbs wrote: post #154
jjani wrote: post #102

> Apple did not respond to a request for comment. “We have never built a back door or master key to any of our products, and we never will,” Apple said in February. This must be some "technically correct" weasel words bullcrap, as without at least equivalent access there is no chance Apple would be operating in China.

I mean they just disabled advanced data protection which allowed normal law enforcement requests to access the data since they are not e2e encrypted if you don't use advanced data protection. I really don't think they needed to implement a new backdoor. They would just need implement a procedure that would fast track UK requests.

That didn’t placate the UK government, because it didn’t just want access to British users’ data – it wanted access to any Apple user’s data from anywhere in the world.

I suspect that disabling advanced data protection in the UK was meant to let Apple say it was complying as far as it could while fighting the main order.

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#346

Post by realsolipsist »

lenerdenator wrote: post #19
xhkkffbf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem to me like the US Vice President is advancing a pretty tech savvy policy. He's pushing for privacy. Am I missing something?

He's associated with Palantir. He can't be pushing for privacy.

I can’t sneeed

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#347

Post by miohtama »

tolien wrote: post #192
miohtama wrote: post #164

What could go wrong? The UK is the same country that arrests 12,000 people a year for posting online. > Now every force in the country has a team sifting through people’s posts trying to determine what crosses an undefined threshold. “It is a complete nightmare,” one officer admits Britain’s police are restricting speech in worrying ways https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/05/15/britains-police... From The Economi…

[citation needed], your Economist article [0] quotes 30 a day (which would be > Under these laws, British police arrest more than 30 people a day for online posts, double the rate in 2017. Some are serious offenders, such as stalkers. How many of those 30 were for "online posts" (and of which nature - Lucy Connolly is a favourite example cited by the likes of Vance, but she was arrested for trying to stir up racial t…

Online Communication Offence Arrests Volume 847: debated on Thursday 17 July 2025

> The tendency to police—literally—what people are saying has been encouraged and enabled by not just this Government but their predecessors. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003, specifically Sections 1 and 127, give the police the power to arrest individuals for what they say online. On average, 30 people are arrested daily. In 2014, under the coalition Government, something called non-crime hate incidents were introduced—words uttered that are not yet criminal in themselves but which the police should officially record none the less and hold against people. Since 2014, more than 133,000 such incidents have been recorded; that is more than 13,000 each year. Some of those who have had their names recorded in police files are children whose words were taken down when they were below the age of criminal responsibility and may be held against them for the rest of their lives. The innocence of youth has been replaced with the presumption of guilt. https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-07-17/debates/F807C...

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#348

Post by miohtama »

jansper39 wrote: post #238
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per gpt: Estimates vary, but roughly 250,000–300,000 people were imprisoned for political reasons over the GDR’s 41-year existence—an average of ~6,000–7,000 annually. Just wow. I wonder if we will study this in history textbooks about downfall of UK

As a resident of the UK I can safely say, no we will not, as we are categorically not arresting 12K people a year for simply posting things online. I would be more likely to include some sections about the current US administration though.

To ask His Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of people arrested daily for non-threatening, online communication offences, and what assessment they have made of the implications of such arrests for freedom of speech.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-07-17/debates/F807C...

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#349

Post by Veen »

prasadjoglekar wrote: post #342
pabs3 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does free speech guarantee privacy?

Encryption itself is a form of speech. Therefore the govt can't force you to decrypt. Guarantee is too strong of a word, but this is the concept.

That’s a specifically US interpretation based on US case law. It doesn’t apply in the UK or anywhere else.

Re: UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US

#350

Post by amatecha »

slavik81 wrote: post #327
aydyn wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and regardless the point is its some extremely niche author. The vast majority of anglophones aint gonna know him.

The author of V for Vendetta, Watchmen, 300, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Okay, just to answer the damned question because apparently no one else felt like doing the decent thing and just saying it: the "Moore" mentioned is Alan Moore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore
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