jungmark

dantheman827 said:

I call BS, this think tank is probably funded by Google / Apple

Do I agree with forcing companies to allow other payment methods inside of their App Store? Absolutely not.

Do I think developers should be able to publish software outside of the App Store that Apple deems unsuitable for it? Absolutely, yes!

Customers having a side-channel will allow developers to publish software that Apple doesn't want on the App Store, it will allow apps like emulators, game streaming, Kodi, "adult" apps, and any software that Apple may decide they don't want available to iOS users in the future.

Them blocking game streaming is  anti-trust and I don't know how they haven't been sued for it.

Them blocking emulators serves no purpose for the consumer other than to encourage them to buy new games on the App Store, possibly ports of the old games they already own copies of.

Rayz2016 said:

gatorguy said:

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

"Apple will refuse any such demands," says the FAQ document. "We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands. We will continue to refuse them in the future."

Until the government in question passes a law that requires Apple to do so, because as they've said many times, they'll comply with any local laws, even to the detriment of their principles concerning privacy.

AppleInsider said:

"We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands. We will continue to refuse them in the future."

And having "steadfastly refused" those demands in the past, you've now done what they want voluntarily.  And as soon as a government passes a law requiring the addition of something else, you'll comply, just as you have all along.

I would not expect Apple to necessarily reveal any expansion of it if some country, and in this case I'm thinking of China, would order them to. They've long soft-peddled the "iCloud operated by GCBD" handover. Heck, it's not even an Apple-run program there. Apple is simply contractually required to cooperate with the government-controlled cloud provider in whatever way needed for handlng the demands on services and access. It is no longer Apple's to run, and they aren't making the rules.

Surprisingly, you haven't actually hit on the worst problem.

Under the current system, the Chinese can avoid the problem simply by not storing stuff in iCloud. Apple even warned them when they were switching over so they had plenty of time to make other arrangements.

This is different.

This piece of software (let's not be coy; it's spyware, plain and simple – it is rifling through your shit looking for other shit) is running on the phone. This means that it can be activated to report on any picture, document or video, regardless of what cloud service it is attached to.

Now, people will now jump in and say, "Well, let's just wait until it happens shall we?"

But some things you know are a bad idea without waiting and seeing. I sometimes think it might be fun to lick a lamppost in sub-zero temperatures, just to see what would happen. But then, on second thoughts, I usually just assume the worst without testing the hypothesis.

You seem to have a finger deep inside Google; do they have something like this, or do they just do the server side scan. I haven't been able to find any reference to a similar setup at any other tech behemoth.