Senator Warren wades into Apple's Beeper fight with irrelevant antitrust rhetoric
Senator Elizabeth Warren has publicly sided with Beeper in the public fight over iMessage access, using the issue to try and continue to push an anti-Big Tech agenda that has little relevancy in this particular matter.
Apple's decision to close down access to Beeper Mini and prevent the Android app from working on the iMessage network has reached the ears of U.S. lawmakers. In possibly the first noteworthy comment by a senator on the matter, it has been used as an opportunity to attack Apple, albeit with a bit of flawed logic.
Posted to X on Sunday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) starts her response by confirming a fact. "Green bubble texts are less secure," Warren offers, which is true since green texts are unencrypted text messages, unlike the end-to-end encrypted blue ones.
Green bubble texts are less secure. So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage? Big Tech executives are protecting profits by squashing competitors.
Chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure. https://t.co/fHAS5ckaEA-- Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren)
"So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage?" the senator asks before offering her own take. "Big Tech executives are protecting profits by squashing competitors."
Warren signs off the tweet by adding "Chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure."
Given the nature of Twitter/X, and the general lack of technical awareness by politicians, it's not clear if she's aware that Apple will be adopting RCS in 2024, and petitioning for an encryption standard.
Not quite correct
The post is largely an opportunity for Warren to try and attack Apple over ongoing efforts to increase regulation of so-called big-tech companies. It also ignores the actual issue of the situation itself.
Beeper Mini, the Android app, allowed Android users to communicate with iPhone users over Apple's iMessage network. To accomplish this, the app had to pretend to be an Apple device and provide fake credentials to Apple's servers, allowing messages to be passed to and from the Android device.
After cutting off Beeper Mini's access to its servers, Apple confirmed it had taken steps to "protect our users" by blocking techniques that "exploit fake credentials" to access iMessage. Doing so keeps the network secure, with Apple claiming the techniques "posed significant risks to user security and privacy."
While Beeper claimed its app was secure, using end-to-end encryption between participants just as iMessage normally does, the claim can only go so far. Apple cannot easily know that the app is working securely beyond the receiving of messages on Android hardware, something it can do on iOS by tightly controlling the main app and the entire ecosystem.
Since Apple cannot possibly ensure the security of iMessage via an Android app that's faking credentials to pretend to be an iPhone, it has worked to block off the app from the network.
Beeper founder Eric Migicovsky responded on Friday to Apple's block, asking that if Apple cared about privacy and security of iPhone users, asking "why would they stop a service that enables their own users to now send encrypted messages to Android users, rather than using unsecure SMS?" Again, Migicovsky's question can be answered for exactly the same reason: Apple cannot guarantee security of communications once it's off its ecosystem.
Warren can conceivably be credited for knowing about green messages being less secure than blue ones. The insistence of "secure" chats between different platforms is also a plus for her message.
However, the complaint about Apple blocking an app over iMessage misses why Apple blocked the access in the first place. Apple says it's for security, but Warren believes it's a profit protection measure.
Continuing the wrong fight
Warren's message is less a chance to urge Apple to change its messaging network, and more of an attempt to use the dispute to score political points against Apple.
The senator has repeatedly attacked Apple and other so-called Big Tech companies, urging for more regulation to curb the influence of the multinationals. This has included urging Congress to create new laws to manage the largest tech companies, as well as attempts to introduce rules to ban merger deals valued at over $5 billion, to try and prevent anticompetitive activity.
Senator Warren is also known to have called for companies including Apple to be broken up into smaller versions, even if doing so impacts the security of the company's own platform.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Her argument is fucking nonsense. If you had even the faintest idea about the actual subject matter, you would easily acknowledge that this is, in fact, a security issue.
And of course, the first step to proving your rationality is claiming that anyone who disagrees is an "irrational fanboi", right?
Fucking pathetic.
1) a lie.
2) nonsense.
Let freedom reign!
:-)
And even Boomers that merely used computers, they started using computers in the 1980's, where the had to manage storage space, switch discs mid-workflow, install "drivers" every time they bought a peripheral, work their way through multi-level menus, live with 8-character file names, and basically code a web page from scratch. And no "undo" buttons. Millennials on the other hand have a nervous breakdown when a process requires more than three clicks.
More accurate is "She's a politician. Those types don't do well with technology".
When Google bought Jibe in 2016 and joined the GSMA they started prodding ATT, Verizon, etc to come together on features and standards, with encryption being one of those features. With Google needing carrier support for Android they tried to work WITH the carrier-led GSMA and not rocking the boat too much, and the carriers were seemingly welcoming Google's membership, even adding Google RCS services to the standard.
https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/global-operators-google-and-the-gsma-align-behind-adoption-of-rcs/
Well so much for that.
Just three years later it was obvious not rocking the boat wasn't going to work to move things along. The lack of action from carriers, including resisting encryption for selfish monetary reasons, pushed Google into taking it into their own hands, expanding the footprint with user-friendly features, and adding E2EE themselves since the carriers would not. IMO, left to themselves, ATT, et.al. never would have done so.
If GSMA eventually makes E2EE mandatory, it will be largely because of Google. I'm not convinced Apple is interested in pushing for it, not bothering to join the standards working group AFAICT, so how are they working with them to add encryption? They're only getting on the boat, not joining the bridge crew based on appearances. Their pinky promise to adopt RCS "next year" was done last minute to avoid the EU from regulating iMessage IMO, and it might succeed, but E2EE RCS won't work in their favor from a marketing aspect.
Apple will not admit to any other messaging service having the security and privacy of iMessage, nor should anyone expect them to. Business is business, and you can be certain Google is acting in their self-interests too, even if Google Messages can't be directly monetized any more than iMessage can. Both are just parts of a bigger profit-making package.
The iMessage network is not "open" like much of the internet, so this was unauthorized access.
Bleeper was planning to share the code in the open-source space so it could be reviewed. Imagine how many nefarious folks could take that and abuse it by building apps that could steal info, and send spam!
While a shame, Apple was fully right to block access.
(RCS is not replacing SMS entirely. SMS remains the fallback option when a data connection is not available.)
The security justification by Beeper is nonsense as they are masquerading as Apple products in order to get it to work. No different than masquerading as a policemen to make people who do not know feel safer.