gatorguy

blastdoor said:

I wonder if apple filters out stories they don’t like from Apple News, too…

Have you seen any EU or US vs. Apple antitrust news on the service? How about the recent consumer class actions targeting the company, again pretty widely reported? Or any stories of possible sagging Apple sales in China? I can't say that I have, but I could have missed them.  That would give you a probable answer whether Apple is controlling, aka censoring, the message on Apple News. I don't really know. 

AppleInsider said:

Apple has not commented on the request to unlock the iPhone. The company does have a policy of providing law enforcement with certain information when subpoenaed, but it will never unlock iPhones.

I didn't think it was a matter of "won't unlock", but instead cannot unlock, same with Google Android. If not then both Apple and Google would have to comply with legal orders to unlock them. There's good reasons that both companies employ E2EE. With no key they can't be ordered to turn over whatever was locked by the user. But beware of cloud services with backups. 

AppleInsider said:

After years of campaigning from Google, Apple announced in November that RCS messaging will be arriving on the iPhone in 2024. While Apple hasn't advised of when that would be, it seems the most opportune time would be in iOS 18.

Support for the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSM Association will "offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS," Apple said in a statement.

RCS support for iMessage is probably going to happen in iOS 18.

While good news for text users, the announcement isn't exactly declaring cut-and-dry support. Apple won't be adopting proprietary extensions to its implementation, such as Google's one that adds end-to-end encryption, with it preferring to work with GSMA to add encryption to the main profile itself.

For Android users who hope RCS will put blue iMessage text bubble snobbery to an end, they're out of luck. Apple will still continue to use blue bubbles for iPhone users and green for Android, even under RCS.

It appears Google will be doing Apple a favor in their DoJ case. Like Apple, Google may well be identifying insecure SMS and unencrypted/less private Apple RCS messages with a different color than is used for E2EE Google RCS Messages. That would put an end to the DoJ claims surrounding Apple's blue/green bubble use being unfair.

danox said:

gatorguy said:

jfreedle2 said:

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

In case you're interested in facts more than FUD...
Google cannot see the contents of any RCS Google Messages. They are encrypted end-to-end, from your device which encrypts them, to the receiver's phone, where they are decrypted. It is equally as secure and private as iMessage, in one way even more so.  A the very worst they might be able to log metadata, same as Apple can, hardly the same as seeing the contents of a message

If you are comfortable with others potentially being able to read your RCS messages sent from your iPhone, just as they can read SMS messages now, then it won't matter if the GSMA ever makes encryption part of the standard, and they might not. They've had years to do so and have ignored it despite Google's pushing them to add it. It's not in the interests of the carriers to do so, and they are the ones heading up the RCS standard. 

Hoovering is Google and Meta middle name.......

Isn't it interesting that this time, Apple is leaving the shed door hung open and the handle broken for easier entry by unwanted visitors, while Google is the one with the automatic door locks on the reinforced garden gate? 

jfreedle2 said:

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

In case you're interested in facts more than FUD...
Google cannot see the contents of any RCS Google Messages. They are encrypted end-to-end, from your device which encrypts them, to the receiver's phone, where they are decrypted. It is equally as secure and private as iMessage, and at least in one way even more so than Apple's Messaging.  At the very worst they might be able to log metadata, same as Apple can, which is hardly the same as seeing the contents of a message.

If you are comfortable with others potentially being able to read your RCS messages sent from your iPhone, just as they can read SMS messages now, then it won't matter if the GSMA ever makes encryption part of the standard.  They might not, and I don't think Apple will care. The GSMA has had years to do so and have ignored it despite Google's pushing them to add it. Encryption is not in the interests of the carriers, and they have been the ones leading the RCS standards body.  

So until there's movement on that front, while iPhone owners cannot be assured of RCS privacy and security, Google Messages users will be. That is unless an iPhone user enters that conversation and breaks the security with Apple's RCS. There's been no mention of Google requiring those unencrypted iPhone messages to display a different bubble color in Google Messages but IMO, they will likely have green bubbles as default, the same as the insecure fallback SMS now has, while blue is reserved for Google's encrypted and secure communications.

Of course an Android owner can choose to change the colors from the defaults, even to specific contacts in a conversation.