“In mid-January we posted a report titled ‘Apple’s CEO Rebukes Washington’s need for ‘Balance’ between National Security and Consumer Privacy,'” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “While National Security officials had met with leading tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft, Apple’s CEO lashed out at the high-level delegation of Obama administration officials about the lack of support for unbreakable encryption.”
“Attorney General Loretta Lynch responded strongly to Cook by speaking of the necessary need for ‘balance’ between privacy and national security, that Cook had no interest in. Then earlier this month U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she was disappointed by a federal judge’s ruling that the government can’t compel Apple Inc. to help investigators extract data from a locked iPhone,” Purcher reports. “In a Q&A session Lynch stated: ‘Do we let one company, no matter how great the company, no matter how beautiful their devices, decide this issue for all of us?’ The tension between Apple and the Obama administration spilled over today when the President spoke about their new Cybersecurity Initiatives and purposely listed tech leaders they’re working with… ‘We’re going to work throughout this process to make sure that security also means privacy. So with the help of companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Visa, we’re going to empower Americans to be able to help themselves and make sure that they are safe online with an extra layer of security, like a fingerprint or a code sent to your cellphone.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Government bedfellows noted. Since we’re avoiding most of them 100% already (Visa may now have to join our list), we suggest you do the same if you value your privacy.
He acts like an entitled middle-schooler! He keeps forgetting his is not an emperor only a president.,,,
Oh sure, Obama has nothing to do with the FBI’s lawsuit…
hey only 315 days 12 hours 9 minutes til Obozo leaves office but whose counting…….
And Great God Trump destroys Civilization. Obama saves America from Bush Wars, Bush Depression, Bush Deficit, Bush Joblessness, Bush Murder, Bush Torture . . .
Huh. I’m just going to assume the post above was a result of a bad batch of drugs.
I’m so getting tired of this Administration…
Wouldn’t the code or fingerprint just enable the government to be sure it was you when they were secretly accessing the data through the backdoor? Plus, you can be compelled to give up your fingerprint, but you cannot be compelled to reveal your private encryption key. This is just BS, in an attempt to placate the uninformed.
I’ve been 100% clear of all those listed companies for quite a few years now. Facebook was never a thing for me and neither was Microsoft as I exclusively used Macs from the late 80’s. Google was stopped being my default search engine when DDG became useable and Visa was abandoned when they started sponsoring large events and insisting that bookings can only be made with a Visa card.
It’s been very easy to do without companies with those questionable business practices and it comes as no surprise at all to now see that they’re happy to work hand in hand with governments and against the privacy of the public.
It’s interesting to note that they have managed to come up with the idea of using fingerprints for security verification. I have a funny feeling that it won’t be stored in a secure enclave, but will be kept in a special place where nobody at all can possibly have access to it ( except for the guys with the dark glasses ).
I am really hoping that Apple soon releases an iOS update that includes entering your passcode before subsequent iOS updates / upgrades / downgrades can be installed. I would immediately install that update!
Contact your senators and representative.
One of the commenters at Patently Apple suggested Apple by Sony and relocate to Japan in a inversion.
buy, not by. Freaken autocorrect
Lame Duck loser Obummer….nobody cares anymore.
Obama… “BlackBerry holdout”
It’s not a surprise that this particular government has abandoned the values and concepts of serving the wee people as they are now subduing a sheepish media dazed population.
It’s also not a surprise to see one or more corporations rise to fill this void.
Years ago I said that one of the best and most likely way for that country to get over their absolutely horrific behavior after the second 9-11 event was not to go to war against a despot but to war it out between themselves, and I mean really go at it.
“it definitely looks as though both sides are digging in for war.”
Let’s hope these wee people wake up and take action.
There’s only one way for american voters in a foreseeable future: vote BERNIE!!! He will not lick ass like Obama or Hilary. He’s not seeking a career, he just truly want to change things. Only thing: will americans stomach it, this harsh medicine? Otherwise it’s just a downhill road. If you think that ANY of the other candidates, reps or democrats, will do anything, best case, marginally positive, you’re kidding yourselves.
Completely agree — Bernie is the only candidate who has spoken in favor of citizen’s right to privacy.
Ironically, it seems Cook likes to hang out at republican retreats, presumably to lick ass.
“Do we let one company, no matter how great the company, no matter how beautiful their devices, decide this issue for all of us?”
No, you let one piece of paper do so. It is called the Constitution. Read and enforce it!
It seems that this one company is the only group that HAS read the Constitution.
The enormous legal framework created in the last 2 centuries covers all those complicated issues that the Constitution does not.
But you already knew that.
“we’re going to empower Americans to be able to help themselves and make sure that they are safe online with an extra layer of security”
Is the American people really THAT stupid to think the President is going to empower Americans with an extra layer of security?!?!?
Too angry and pissed to say anything rational. All I know is the wrong headiness of this administration is beginning to make the stupid ass moves of the prior administration pale in comparison. And except maybe for Bernie, none of the people in the group presently in contention will be any better on this matter – particularly not Cruz or Clinton. What a disgusting mess!
Disturbing if they are deliberately excluding Apple. The other companies should refuse to participate if this is how it will work.
Noticed an odd choice by the author:
“Then earlier this month U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said…”
“Then earlier” ?!? That implies the AG can travel back in time. That would be a game-changer in all kinds of ways. 🙂
“In a Q&A session Lynch stated: ‘Do we let one company, no matter how great the company, no matter how beautiful their devices, decide this issue for all of us?’
This qualifies as ‘evil’. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is clearly attempting to divert attention away from the fact that:
This Is An Issue Of US Citizen Constitutional Rights
It is NOT just about Apple. Who put this nasty person into office? Oh yeah.
Obama:
‘We’re going to work throughout this process to make sure that security also means privacy. So with the help of companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Visa, we’re going to empower Americans…
We The People are ALREADY empowered. Stop attempting to take your US Constitution given citizen’s rights AWAY from us!
So much deceitful rhetoric, propaganda, hoodwinking, lying, deception, misinformation, misdirection, disingenuousness, from our very own government.
This has to stop.
So Obama is gonna make US more secure with Google, Facebook and Microsoft?!?!
Talk about tech giant who have no ehtic on user privacy. I am guessing the Gov is siding with giant who has the same view and ethic.
Shame shame shame!!!!
And now corporate America, the military-industrial complex, surveillance US/law enforcement and ruling elite are no more than an incident just slightly larger than San Bernadino from total citizen control and your shaky, shitty rights to privacy will be no more, gone and forgotten like a fart in the universe. Or this final determining event can be staged if pressed for time, even now Orwell was not even near in his 1984 fiction.
Apple should just buy the government and get it over with.
Sent from my iPhone
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