Beleaguered BlackBerry CEO John Chen again attacks Apple’s use of strong encryption

“BlackBerry’s Security Summit kicked off yesterday in New York,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “With the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain being unhappy with Apple’s CEO for not attending a hearing on encryption last week, BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen saw an opportunity to score some political points yesterday by saying that he was disturbed by Apple’s tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm’s attitude is harmful to society.”

“Chen was quizzed about his opinion on government requests for user data during BlackBerry’s Security Summit in New York Q&A session. ‘One of our competitors, we call it ‘the other fruit company’, has an attitude that it doesn’t matter how much it might hurt society, they’re not going to help,'” Purcher reports. “Chen added that ‘I found that disturbing as a citizen. I think BlackBerry, like any company, should have a basic civil responsibility. If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: What’s even more disturbing is that John Chen either doesn’t know that encryption is binary (it’s either on or off) and that there are no such things as back doors that only work for “the good guys” or he thinks the rest of us are too stupid to know he’s feigning ignorance about those blatant facts in order to score whatever points he’s thinks he’s scoring – and, no, he’s not scoring any for his flattened little pancake of iPhone roadkill: U.S. Senate finally pulls plug on antiquated BlackBerry phones – July 5, 2016.

We won’t even get into the fact that Chen seemingly doesn’t recognize the irony of calling for Apple to make their products insecure at a so-called “Security Summit.”

SEE ALSO:
BlackBerry CEO wants U.S. government to force Apple to make iMessage for BlackBerry under guise of so-called ‘net neutrality’ – January 22, 2015

18 Comments

  1. BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen is CANADIAN!

    So please STFU John Chen. Apple is a US company and bravely supports the US Constitution. If only Canada and the rest of the less-free world did as well!

    Oh and BTW: We know what’s really upsetting you John.
    A) Apple surpassed the BlackBerry in security becoming the world’s safest mobile device. Irony much?
    B) The impending bankruptcy of BlackBerry.

    Your company had a great run! So stop being a cry baby and deal with its demise, like a good sport.

    Bless you Apple for standing up for and defining user privacy rights for the world! May you be forever vigilant! 🇺🇸

    1. John Chen was born in Hong Kong and has subsequently moved to the US. He lives in Cakifornia. He may be a British citizen, a Chinese citizen, and/or American citizen, but he surely isn’t a Canadian citizen.

      And as an American CEO (of a Canadian company), he can be expected to testify in American Senste (or Congress).

  2. Stock symbol is now officially BBB for Beleaguered BlackBerry and very soon to be followed by BMSFT, BGOOG and BAMZN. If you own any of the aforementioned, you’re likely going to be spending retirement as a Walmart greeter.

  3. Hey John, you dumbass SOB, you know what really hurts society? It is not Apple’s protecting their users information, it is people like who don’t believe in the Constitution.

  4. When your company is about to go tits-up financially, all you can do is complain about business practices of other companies especially the one that is mostly responsible for your demise!

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