Fundamentally, I think the issue is more about technical literacy amongst the political establishment who consistently rely on the fallacy that having nothing to hide means you have nothing to fear. Especially in the UK which operates as a paternalistic state and enjoys authoritarian support across all parties. On the authoritarianism: these laws are always worded in such a way that they can be applied or targeted va…
Furthermore, one UK head of state call everyone supporting encryption pedophiles https://x.com/BenWallace70/status/1892972120818299199
Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
471–480 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#472I'm sympathetic to the J.D. Vance angle, which is that European governments are increasingly scared of their own people. This is not doing a lot to change my mind.
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Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#473If you're in the UK, please consider signing the below petition. Thanks.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-our-apple-data-e...
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#474I have a naive question, and it's genuine curiosity, not a defence of what's happening here. This ADP feature has only existed for a couple of years, right? I understand people are mad that it's now gone, but why weren't people mad _before_ it existed? For like, a decade? Why do people treat iCloud as immediately dangerous now, if they didn't before? Did they think it was fully encrypted when it wasn't? Did people no…
At one point in time, the entirety of web communication was completely unencrypted. Why were people not mad then? Do you think people would be angrier now, if HTTPS were suddenly outlawed? Among other valid answers, removing rights and privileges generally makes people angrier than not having those rights or privileges in the first place.
always used my own encryption and cyphered any sensitive data/communications, but the problem is that most people won't and you're often compromised by them
simple solutions like Whatsapp, Signal and ADP brought this to the masses - which some governments have issues about - and this makes a massive difference to everybody including those who wouldn't be caught dead using an iphone anyway
if we could go back to the early 1990s when only professionals, Uni students, techies and enthusiasts used the internet I'd go in a heartbeat but that's not the world we're living in
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#475Many people might not be aware of it, but Apple publishes a breakdown of the number of government requests for data that it receives, broken down by country. The number of UK requests has ballooned in recent years: https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/gb.html#:~:text=77%... Much of this is likely related to the implementation and automation of the US-UK data access agreement pursuant to the CLOUD Act, which has s…
Looking at the ones for Germany, those seem like rookie numbers
https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/de.html#:~:text=77%...
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#476Can someone explain what's changed in the UK that they would consider requesting unfettered access to all Apple customer data (including outside their own borders)? I get that the NSA is infamous for warrant-less surveillance, but this seems a step further.
Labour Party was elected six months ago. It is doubling down on existing government surveillance policy as a cure-all weapon to investigate and chill opposition, and to humble foreign tech companies.
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#477I'm sympathetic to the J.D. Vance angle, which is that European governments are increasingly scared of their own people. This is not doing a lot to change my mind.
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Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#478I have a naive question, and it's genuine curiosity, not a defence of what's happening here. This ADP feature has only existed for a couple of years, right? I understand people are mad that it's now gone, but why weren't people mad _before_ it existed? For like, a decade? Why do people treat iCloud as immediately dangerous now, if they didn't before? Did they think it was fully encrypted when it wasn't? Did people no…
iCloud did a lot less, in the past. Disabling it now gives you access to more data than it did a few years ago. And I also suspect it has far more users today than it did a few years ago.
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no alternative really as only iCloud can back-up your settings, saved networks, and apps data. Other apps like Nextcloud, can only backup documents (those not in apps) and pictures, because there's an API for this. iTunes backup is an option, but it's not automatic and convenient.
Is that true? Only iCloud can back up an iPhone? They dont provide any way to even extract an encrypted archive so you can keep it safe for yourself? I get more and more amazed at Apples lock in tactics. This is why I own nothing Apple, and have complete control over everything in my digital world.
iTunes backup is perfectly reasonable alternative to iCloud that retains e2ee, I don't know why they were dissing it. It can back up everything that iCloud can and it's automatic, you just plug your phone in, no lock in tactics.
Re: Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
#480The smartphone is a terrible platform. Something like this could never happen on the PC, where you can install any encryption and backup software that you want. While Apple did the right thing by refusing to give the UK government a backdoor, they are responsible for getting users in this situation in the first place. I'm not familiar with the iPhone and maybe there is already an alternative to iCloud ADP, although t…
The smartphone platform is the most secure by default personal computer most people own, largely because of the control enforced by Apple.
If we are saying "secure", we should talk about what we are securing and against whom.
A smartphone may be secure against malicious individual actors but its certainly not the most secure when it comes to your private data. Modern day smartphone is designed to maximize capturing your private information like location, communication patterns, activity and (sometimes) health information and pass it on to as many private players(a.k.a apps) as possible, even to governments without your knowledge. You don't have much control over it.
In that aspect it is less secure than your typical PC. A PC doesn't have that level of private information in the first place and whatever information it has will leak only if you opt-in or get infected by malware.(recent Windows versions without necessary tweaks may be considered a malware by some).