It'd be nice to not have to have this fight every 3-5 years but privacy is antithetical to the role of the security services so they're never going to give it up.
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
451–460 of 1001 posts
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#452I 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…
The UK government can’t put Apple out of business; Apple can easily afford to simply exit all business in the UK. The UK is betting that Apple’s greed outweighs their principles. Long odds.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#453Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the UK is “on our side”. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
I dont think that is actually true in those cases. Relations with China were pretty cosy till they did a 180 around the second Bush administration and started all that Wolf Warrior diplomacy, 9 dotted line stuff, Hongkong crackdowns....... Regarding Russia, nobody really cared at all till it was absolutely impossible to ignore. Putin seems to think that he needs the west as an enemy to bolster his standing and power.…
It’s a reference to 1984 by George Orwell. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_geography_of_Ninet...
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#454Surely any moderately sophisticated group of criminals can simply create there own end to end encryption apps. So even if the UK, or other governments, get there own way they will only et to see the content related to the less competent criminals. Perhaps it's still worth it to some.
As Encrochat/ANOM/Sky ECC show, not only is this possible, it actually happens.
Encrochat was almost certainly a honeypot:
> After the Dutch and Canadian police compromised their server in 2016, EncroChat turned into a popular alternative among criminals for its security-oriented services in 2017–2018. The founders and owners of EncroChat are not known. According to Dutch journalist Jan Meeus, a Dutch organized crime gang was involved and financed the developers.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#455Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brit here. Yeah from my experience people don't care. Hardly anyone gets prosecuted and those who do have often done something bad. Most day to day complaints are they don't prosecute enough, often related to the bastard that snatched your phone. We have approximately zero people sitting in jail for failing to decrypt and similar. >This is a very obvious setup for future totalitarianism. No it really isn't. If they a…
Today, maybe, even so it probably depends on who you ask. The thing about giving your rights away is that it’s very difficult to get them back, and you never know who “they” are going to be in the future.
I'm not sure "giving your rights away" quite sums up the process. It's more as a Brit, and probably most of us, weren't even aware this bill was happening - the government passes many pages of dull legislation - but if it proves a pain you can always vote for whoever offers to repeal it. I suspect the encryption law vs Apple is going to result in the government backing down to some extent.
We did rebel over ID cards. Passed in 2006, repealed in 2011. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Cards_Act_2006
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#456[flagged]
Can you offer an example of someone being jailed for "disagreeing with the extreme left on social media," or is this an alternative fact that you've acquired via osmosis? I am aware of people being jailed in the UK for making terrorist threats on social media, and arguably those prosecutions were inappropriate, but that doesn't appear to be what you're claiming.
There are several examples, but connected, just this week, the British police not only arrested a men for burning the Koran, but they also doxed his full name and hometown.
This, right after Islamists killed people in Europe for burning the Koran.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/04/manchester-polic...
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#457Where is my iCloud data stored? If I visit China, is a copy stored there? If my phone is from China, but i live in the USA, where is my iCloud data? Is it replicated globally? I once asked in an Apple store, but no-one knew the answer
Where your data is stored depends on the country set in your Apple Account. In your scenario your data will never be stored in China but I don't know if your USA-based account data is replicated in the EU, though.
1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/111754 says you can change your country to opt-out of GCBD.
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42631386 says "iCloud accounts registered outside of China are not affected."
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#458Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thought experiment: let’s say that Trump said that he thinks Apple is helping hide illegal immigrants because they are communicating with each other over channels that ICE can’t decrypt, how much pressure do you think he could put on legislatures to pass a law here? Now let’s say that some Republican Senators and Representatives were ethically opposed to but then threatened to be primaried and President Musk said he…
I'm not sure what the hypothesis is in your experiment, i agree that all that stuff is really bad
That all it takes is the co-presidents to say that by giving up your freedom we can get rid of those “evil illegal immigrants” and enough people will give up their rights.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#459See also "U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts": > The law, known by critics as the Snoopers’ Charter, makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has even made such a demand. An Apple spokesman declined to comment. * https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-e... * https://archive.is/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology... > The Investigatory Powers Act 201…
See also "U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts"
Not just "see also." Your link is the original reporting.
Without journalists and organizations like these doing hard, expensive work like this no one -- not even on HN -- would know about it.
It's a shame that the link being used for the HN entry is to a blog re-writing other people's work, and not doing any of that work or sharing any of that expense themselves.
Correct link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-e...
No, I don't care if there's a paywall. Credit where credit is due is something your mom should have taught you when you were five.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#460Just make TimeCapsule for iOS and iPadOS. With option to store it fully encrypted in AWS cold storage as Apple subscription.
Any time someone on HN starts a reply with "Just..." you know they didn't think it through.