photography guy

Apple CEO Tim Cook confirms first India Apple Store will open in 2021

February 2020

Opening stores and development centers in India will be a big deal for both Apple and India. What I'm hoping is that Apple can negotiate a deal where they can sell their stuff at equivalent prices with other parts of the world instead of the ridiculous 30-50% mark-ups that you currently have to pay to buy and iPhone, iPad or MacBook here. Apple's own brick&mortar as well as online stores will also help in terms of service and support.

You can buy Apple products here, but the sales people know almost nothing about them, so you're pretty much on your own.

New York City has a $10 million cybercrime lab to crack the iPhone

photography guy

January 2020

Fred257 said:

You’re not a criminal. But when something happens to someone and they have a warrant Apple is helping criminals by not complying with a Warrant. They should be sued..

No. What the DoJ and FBI is asking Apple to do is to build an operating system which is fundamentally vulnerable, so that, with or without a warrant, law enforcement could climb in through the back door of someone's device. This puts EVERYONE at risk.
What law enforcement wants is EASY access to people's personal data. That's also known as a surveillance state; one that presumes that if you value privacy, then you must be doing something nefarious that you don't want them to know about. It's a presumption of guilt. One of America's fundamental values, historically, has been a presumption of innocence and right to privacy. Remember when it was considered a federal offense to open someone's mailbox?
What it comes down to, is law enforcement can legally compel (though not physically force) someone to unlock their own device, if provided with a warrant. Just like a person must allow police to enter their home, if provided with a warrant. If the individual refuses to comply with the warrant, then law enforcement can charge them with contempt, and hold them until they comply.
What the DoJ and FBI want is a Master Key to EVERYONE'S device, so that they can access it anytime they want, for any reason, with or without a warrant. That would be akin to the police being allowed to come into your home at any time, for any reason, without a warrant or probable cause, just in case you might be doing something illegal in your house. Is that the kind of world you want to live in?

What Apple surrenders to law enforcement when issued a subpoena

photography guy

January 2020

I think law enforcement has demonstrated over and over again that they can't be trusted to protect our civil liberties. Ever since the Patriot Act, they've run roughshod over our right to privacy and security all in the name of fighting terrorism. Not only that, but there are also those instances where FBI laptops have been stolen, servers have been hacked, etc. There's no way they can be trusted with a pinky-swear that they will not abuse their access to our devices via a backdoor, or that they won't leave the Master Password on a sticky-note on one of their monitor screens, or just have it dropped off in a dumpster when their office is cleaned.

The other part of this is that US law often sets a precedent for other regimes and governments. If Apple is forced to build a backdoor into their devices in the US, they will have to do it for other countries as well, and there are some governments that will definitely use that access to spy on and round up any dissenters or to shut down protests.

FBI reportedly accessed locked iPhone 11 Pro Max with GrayKey third party tool

photography guy

January 2020

citpeks said:

photography guy said:

The FBI and DOJ have no grounds for harassing Apple to build backdoors or cripple their security strategies if they (FBI/DOJ) can use third party entities to break into someone's iPhone. This is actually a good thing, in that it motivates Apple's security and privacy team to build iteratively more robust security into their devices.

Like the case in Southern California, this isn't about the facts behind the investigation. This is a dog and pony show put on for the stupid and gullible (including members of Congress), with the hope that it will somehow lead to a legal precedent or some sort of legislation.

Exactly. If the DOJ/FBI had legal standing to force Apple to create a backdoor, then they wouldn't have to whine about Apple in the news. They're trying to get public opinion on their side (i.e., "You're with us, or your with the terrorists." also, "You shouldn't care if we can access your personal data—unless you're doing something illegal!!!") so that they can eventually get legislation passed which would legally require companies to build backdoors into all their consumer devices, effectively rendering any security protocols useless. Oh, and DOJ/FBI will SUPER-PINKY-SWEAR to respect everyone's privacy and to NEVER abuse their power!!