“Apple has updated its privacy policy as part of the rollout of iOS 8, announcing that devices with the latest version of the operating system installed can no longer be accessed by the company itself,” Cyrus Farivar reports for Ars Technica. “‘On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode,’ the company wrote on its website Wednesday evening. ‘Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.'”
Farivar reports, “In an open letter also published Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook took a direct swipe at Google, its primary mobile competitor. ‘Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers,’ he wrote. ‘We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.'”
Farivar reports, “Privacy advocates immediately lauded the move.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Thanks Mr. Cook!
All part of the thermonuclear salvo.
Shock and awe! To be continued next month with the iPad release . . . .
The nets are in place on the Samsung offices.
We don’t need no stinkin’ nets…
I hope they brought gum for everyone. 😉
The supports aren’t too secure, are they? Wouldn’t want them to realize their not really secure too soon.
nice one Tim 👍
Brilliant move!!
A great way for Apple to highlight one of the many differences between iOS & Android.
“You are not our product.”
“Everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they’re making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to worry.”
Spot on.
Mr. Cook is a gentleman with principles and an outstanding leader.
The rest of Apple’s leadership is also legendary and is the foundation for Apple’s continuing success.
Steve Jobs was of course great and helped create an enduring Apple corporate culture.
I am proud to be a part of it.
Apple sells itself. Apple doesn’t need ads to make money, therefore they have no need to store your data. It’s common sense.
Drug dealers & pimps of the world, we are open for business!
– Apple
Law abiding political groups now have a little more privacy. The IRS has proven to us that U.S. government agencies can and will abuse its power for political purposes. It has also shown us that bringing government criminals to justice is very difficult.
As Tim Cook pointed out in his interview with Charlie Rose on PBS this past week: 99.9% of people are NOT terrorists or crooks. As such, the US government has NO right to surveil any of them. Apple is simply putting this plain and simple law physically (and softwarically) into place in their devices.
Keep in mind that NONE of this absolutist protection of personal data would have happened if #MyStupidGovernment had not destroyed the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and surveilled the hell out of EVERYONE without ‘probable cause’, without oath or affirmation, without designating any specific place to search, without ANY notice of seizure. IOW: #MyStupidGovernment brought ALL of this down on THEMSELVES. Blame them for their stupidity, NOT anyone demanding their constitution right to privacy.
If you want to lose your privacy to government control, go live in China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, ad nauseam. Please LEAVE the USA so we don’t have to hear your worthless excuses for enabling #MyStupidGovernment’s treasonous surveillance of We The People. What the USA needs is more patriots like Edward Snowden.
Okay Sami-Hint
BOOM! that. just. happened.
Privacy advocates have been asleep for a few years.
Tim has set the Apple customer expectation bar very high, indeed.
I hope that he, and Apple, are able to meet this declared metric in both word and deed — the black and white meaning as well as the moral component/U.S. constitutional implications. Should any of this announcement prove to be untrue, in any way, Apple will experience a well-deserved and publicly loud uprising against ANY betrayal of this promise.
I hope that Apple understands the magnitude and implications of the battle space that they have just entered — and that their legal team is primed for the long haul, up to and including a possible showdown via the U.S. Supreme Court.
We’ll see if Apple is willing to effectively stand behind these words, defending all that the Founding Fathers gave us, including numerous warnings against tyranny via government, and how we MUST stand firm in order to prevent such bald usurpations of power.
Tim and Apple — you are on notice. Will you fight the good fight?
Niffy
Maybe Apple can’t access your phone but what about the government?
And we believe him because (see below):
http://boingboing.net/2014/09/20/reasons-not-to-trust-apple.html