Entirely political show, to make Franken look like he's doing something.
As if he is in any position to properly evaluate Apple's response on Face ID. Frankly, their whitepaper is nothing more than a "Yes, it is secure" response. There is no "proof" so to speak.
Which is fine as far as I'm concerned. They can do whatever they want and it is up to consumers to hold them accountable, not politicians.
Which is fine as far as I'm concerned. They can do whatever they want and it is up to consumers to hold them accountable, not politicians.
I disagree completely. That stance is fine regarding features. Vote with wallets and maybe features are added, removed, improved, whatever.
But regarding the question(s) of customers' privacy and security, there needs to be responsibility, liability , and culpability assigned and enforced. That is not within the capabilities of the consumer.
Rounded corners vs square corners, etc., use the wallet. Un-patched, un-updated security holes, etc., use the gavel.
Well, Stuart Smalley is happy, so I feel better now.
Said no one, ever.
Don't broadcast your ignorance. Franken graduated cum laude from Harvard with a BA in political science. I would hazard a guess that he's a lot smarter than you are.
There is nothing wrong with Sen. Franken asking about a new technology. Plenty of tech companies introduce new products and services that create havoc — such as Facebook’s platform being used by Russians to manipulate the election, Uber’s multiple abuses, Google’s privacy infringements and Amazon’s (local) tax-dodging policies. Apple is a quality company run by people of character, and will do great when called to account.
How can one use Facebook to manipulate elections, if Facebook has nothing to do with the voting process? Did you mean, manipulate public opinion? But then all MSM needs to be accused too.
Exactly. All people are always acting in their own self-interest. “Russian ads”, if they were effective, would only be effective because people were already interested in them. Hillary lost because she couldn’t be believed.
Well, Stuart Smalley is happy, so I feel better now.
Said no one, ever.
Don't broadcast your ignorance. Franken graduated cum laude from Harvard with a BA in political science. I would hazard a guess that he's a lot smarter than you are.
“Political science” isn’t exactly science, now is it?
There is nothing wrong with Sen. Franken asking about a new technology. Plenty of tech companies introduce new products and services that create havoc — such as Facebook’s platform being used by Russians to manipulate the election, Uber’s multiple abuses, Google’s privacy infringements and Amazon’s (local) tax-dodging policies. Apple is a quality company run by people of character, and will do great when called to account.
How can one use Facebook to manipulate elections, if Facebook has nothing to do with the voting process? Did you mean, manipulate public opinion? But then all MSM needs to be accused too.
Exactly. All people are always acting in their own self-interest. “Russian ads”, if they were effective, would only be effective because people were already interested in them. Hillary lost because she couldn’t be believed.
I mean, don't get me wrong, Putin might have paid for those ads easily (not himself, of course. That OP would have to be curated by some high level dude from FSB/GRU), but unless his goons were throwing people from windows of US voting stations (like they do in Russia); fairing same groups of people from a station to a station to make them vote multiple times; added piles of fake ballots to the boxes to "match" "predicted" numbers, there was no way they could have affect the results.
It's actually a crime to knowingly give materially false statements to Congress. The stakes are a little higher when responding to a request for information like that from a Senator. So yes, Franken (or his staff) could've read up on the tech on Apple's website (and they probably did), but asking the question and getting a written response has a purpose beyond reading what's on the website. If the marketing materials were inaccurate, perhaps the FTC could fine them and demand they remove or correct any inaccurate claims, but there's a whole other set of penalties if their letter to Senator Franken isn't accurate. To that point, the article at the top of this thread says, colloquially, that the letter to Franken was "penned by VP for Public Policy Cynthia Hogan." It would probably be more precise to say that the letter was signed by Hogan, but written very carefully by a team of Apple engineers and lawyers.
It’s a reasonable position that many people who use hi tech gear really don’t understand what is going on inside the device. It is reasonable for the Senator to have asked questions about security. Apple reiterated in pretty simple language how their systems work. I see no problem here.
Yeah, but he did ask some REALLY dumb questions that had already been answered...
For example... Phil showed a room full of REALLY creepy, highly realistic masks: http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59b82af49803c513098b4d39-480/apple-faceid-masks.png as he explained that they got master mask makers to make duplicates of faces, yet even these “best in the world” masks could NOT fool FaceID. Soooo.... why in the hell was question #4, “yeah, but can a mask or photo fool it?”. For how well written his open letter was... had he spent 1/10 of the time instead seeing if he could easily answer his own questions, it could have been much more succinct & relevant.
It's actually a crime to knowingly give materially false statements to Congress. The stakes are a little higher when responding to a request for information like that from a Senator. So yes, Franken (or his staff) could've read up on the tech on Apple's website (and they probably did), but asking the question and getting a written response has a purpose beyond reading what's on the website. If the marketing materials were inaccurate, perhaps the FTC could fine them and demand they remove or correct any inaccurate claims, but there's a whole other set of penalties if their letter to Senator Franken isn't accurate. To that point, the article at the top of this thread says, colloquially, that the letter to Franken was "penned by VP for Public Policy Cynthia Hogan." It would probably be more precise to say that the letter was signed by Hogan, but written very carefully by a team of Apple engineers and lawyers.
Keep in mind that while it may be a crime to make false statements before Congress, one can always take the Fifth (Amendment) and not answer (something James Clapper and Hillary Clinton perhaps should've done).
Comments
As if he is in any position to properly evaluate Apple's response on Face ID. Frankly, their whitepaper is nothing more than a "Yes, it is secure" response. There is no "proof" so to speak.
Which is fine as far as I'm concerned. They can do whatever they want and it is up to consumers to hold them accountable, not politicians.
But regarding the question(s) of customers' privacy and security, there needs to be responsibility, liability , and culpability assigned and enforced. That is not within the capabilities of the consumer.
Rounded corners vs square corners, etc., use the wallet. Un-patched, un-updated security holes, etc., use the gavel.
https://www.franken.senate.gov/files/letter/170913_AppleFaceID.pdf
For example... Phil showed a room full of REALLY creepy, highly realistic masks:
http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59b82af49803c513098b4d39-480/apple-faceid-masks.png
as he explained that they got master mask makers to make duplicates of faces, yet even these “best in the world” masks could NOT fool FaceID. Soooo.... why in the hell was question #4, “yeah, but can a mask or photo fool it?”.
For how well written his open letter was... had he spent 1/10 of the time instead seeing if he could easily answer his own questions, it could have been much more succinct & relevant.