Oh, they hired a developer behind Signal. No offense to Mr. Jacobs, I'm sure he is an excellent developer. But I saw the headline and assumed they had grabbed Moxie.
I assumed the same
Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
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Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#82>Apple Hires Developer Behind Signal, Edward Snowden’s Favorite Secure Chat App A "secure" chat app that depends on Google Play Services (spyware) and is only available through the Play Store (rather than F-Droid, an open source software repository for Android) and maintained by an author who refuses to integrate fixes to either of these problems upstream. For those wondering if Google Play Services really is spyware…
You're welcome to inform yourself on the subject before posting crude FUD: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-iOS/blob/master/BUI...
I encourage you to do the same:
https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/127
Security should be available to all, not just those with the environment and know-how to compile apps from source. Doubly so on iOS where you have to pay x dollars for a developer license.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you heard of Ernst Röhm the Nazi general who was openly gay during his tenure? Apparently his homosexuality and the resulting stigmatization didn't stop him from espousing horrendous values and ideals. Someone's sexual orientation has no weight on the values system that he/she would subscribe to and thus shouldn't be taken into consideration in any serious discussion about the topic.
> Someone's sexual orientation has no weight on the values system that he/she would subscribe (...) They _may_ have no weight, indeed, as your anecdote illustrates. People tend to empathize more with people they have something in common with (some research suggests [0][1]), so I think many of us would certainly have a mindset affected by our minority-held sexual orientation, in matters where our sexual orientation ac…
The OP's statement was basically that being a homosexual makes him automatically being a lover of individual freedom and liberties to which I objected and exposed the flaw in that argument citing a historical example of a famous openly gay person who was all for everything that's the opposite of freedom and liberty.
If the OP's argument was limited to only the privacy part, I'd have agreed tentatively with him/her as it's undisputed truth that gays under persecution or living in discriminatory environments favor privacy intensely and therefore it could be argued that this influenced the decision of Tim Cook in the apparent fight with the FBI.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#84Does anybody see through these PR plays? They've unlocked many phones in the past for the government, they're protecting their technology and using the moral issue to look good at a time when they're still majorly losing their way. To me this looks like governmental appeasement. Shutting down Snowden and other's methods of private communications is a fantastic gift to the government who doesn't want more of that type…
>They've unlocked many phones in the past for the government I do not really see why this is always brought up. Ofcourse they unlocked phones in the past, they had a master password, they could not legally refuse to do it. There was no legal way for them to resist such actions by the government Do you understand the difference between the security model today, and previous versions of the iPhone? Further I do believe…
What do you mean by hating their business model? Genuinely curious. I don't like Google collecting and selling my personal data so I don't use their products. What is your reasoning for "hating" Apple's model? Seems pretty identical to other companies except they don't collect and sell user data.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They've unlocked many phones in the past for the government I do not really see why this is always brought up. Ofcourse they unlocked phones in the past, they had a master password, they could not legally refuse to do it. There was no legal way for them to resist such actions by the government Do you understand the difference between the security model today, and previous versions of the iPhone? Further I do believe…
What do you mean by hating their business model? Genuinely curious. I don't like Google collecting and selling my personal data so I don't use their products. What is your reasoning for "hating" Apple's model? Seems pretty identical to other companies except they don't collect and sell user data.
>What do you mean by hating their business model? Genuinely curious.
They do not support open protocols, they do not support interoperablity, they want to much control over the device I supposedly bought from them..
I have to use their App Store, they Operating System, their Backup (iCloud), their Desktop App (iTunes) etc etc etc
There is no F-Driod, for iOS for example.
I hate walled gardens.
>Seems pretty identical to other companies except they don't collect
They may not sell it, but they are certainly collecting data about you...
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Is the NSA capable of doing it? YES 2. Does the NSA have a reason to do it? YES
> Is the NSA capable of doing it? YES Serious question - is it?
Serious question. Is it safe to assume that the NSA can't? NO
The NSA might or might not share with the FBI, and the FBI might or might not be able to use what's shared in court, which could explain why they want new authority.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#87Oh, they hired a developer behind Signal. No offense to Mr. Jacobs, I'm sure he is an excellent developer. But I saw the headline and assumed they had grabbed Moxie.
Everyone who has ever known, or known of Moxie, thought the same :D I think we'd all love to see him be CCO (Chief Cryptography Officer) or something similar for Apple. Not to diminish his work at Whisper Systems, but talent like his should be reaching the 100 of millions of customers that Apple has reach to. Moxie, I know you hop on hacker news every so often - if you read this - would you go work for Apple? Or are they too closed source for your tastes?
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#88Does anybody see through these PR plays? They've unlocked many phones in the past for the government, they're protecting their technology and using the moral issue to look good at a time when they're still majorly losing their way. To me this looks like governmental appeasement. Shutting down Snowden and other's methods of private communications is a fantastic gift to the government who doesn't want more of that type…
Yes, this could be all smoke and mirrors and Apple is already in bed with the USG and they just playing us and taking us for suckers but setting all these legitimate concerns aside and assuming that this whole controversy is legit, I think Apple's position is vulnerable given their tax policies and hoarding cash reserves in offshore subsidiaries and holding the repatriation of these funds to the US.
I think that the USG could really twist Apple's arm and take them to courts over trumped up tax evasion charges and force Apple to cooperate with them on that FBI issue.
Let's just wait to see how this interesting story evolves and concludes before passing judgements very early.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#89Conjecture: Isn't Apple's private signing key already a "master key to turn 100 million locks"? I.e. the key they use to sign software updates. With that key, someone could create malware and sign it... Apple creating the malware just saves them a step. Ergo the "target on that piece" is already pretty high value, yet Apple is able to keep it secret / prepared for contingencies (like rotating the key..) Thoughts?
Well, this is true for any form of authentication. If you have information you need to update, you need to have a form of authentication, and authentication data can get lost. You just need to have good routines limiting the access to this data. This is a problem for signing software, but also things like updating their webpage and content on the App Store. All these systems need to have authentication data exist, an…
So what does this say about Apple's claim that a "master key" is too dangerous to create? Don't they already have that.. something that hackers could use to unlock iPhones? Doesn't that danger already exist? (Again this is meant as thought-provoking conjecture.)
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#90Does anybody see through these PR plays? They've unlocked many phones in the past for the government, they're protecting their technology and using the moral issue to look good at a time when they're still majorly losing their way. To me this looks like governmental appeasement. Shutting down Snowden and other's methods of private communications is a fantastic gift to the government who doesn't want more of that type…
While I agree that closed-source privacy protection isn't trustable, and therefore isn't sufficient, that doesn't mean that Apple doesn't intend to protect APple customers.
There's a big difference between not going far enough and deliberate deception on this topic. There are also multiple stages to the battle for privacy, and most technology products and services are relatively far behind Apple in that progression.