“Throughout its fight with the FBI over unlocking iPhones, Apple has said that lawmakers, not courts, should be the ones setting the course on encryption policy,” Joshua Brustein reports for Bloomberg. “This stance doesn’t come without risk, since there’s no guarantee that Congress would give Apple what it wants.”
“Meanwhile, foreign lawmakers are threatening to muddy the waters even further. Recent actions in Europe and South America reveal the potential for a patchwork of varying national policies that could pose an impossible situation for global technology companies,” Brustein reports. “How can they comply with differing, sometimes conflicting laws in the many countries in which they operate?”
“Given that the sense of urgency over terrorism in Western Europe is particularly acute these days, it may be a bad time for tech companies to push back,” Brustein reports. “If the U.S. Congress does take up new legislation on encryption, the technology industry can be expected to put intense pressure on lawmakers to see things their way. In Europe, though, Silicon Valley’s lobbying is likely to hold less sway…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Via Apple or via third parties, the bad guys will encrypt with impunity.
SEE ALSO:
France clears bill that could force Apple to unlock terror data – March 9, 2016
French parliament votes to penalize smartphone makers over encryption – March 4, 2016
Proposed law would allow France to fine Apple €1 million unless it hacks iPhones – February 29, 2016
It may well end up you buy you’re own encryption and install it. Governments and law enforcement agencies will be thwarted in the end anyway.
What will the various governments do then, fine or imprison their citizens for buying 3rd party encryption?
Not only that but as technology advances, iCal my words, they will demand a right to implant chips in our bodies that can assit them in their fight against terrorism.
If citizens do it here in the States themselves they can then plead the 5th as in “I cannot give you the encryption key on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.”
That will be the next step, after encryption is made illegal.
Next, they will turn your car off at will, require you to install video cameras in your homes, fine you for the food you eat, zap you for sleeping too long, scold you for watching too much TV, flag you for watching alternative news, ostracize you for not going to a “Government” church, ban you for dancing in public, eliminate electric guitars and drums, follow you from a nightclub, sterilize the non white populations, wash your mouth out with soap for criticizing their lust for power, throw you into the gas chambers.
And read your medical record, and your financial information.
You forgot that they (Obama Circle Js) have discussed suing climate change deniers in the FBI at the behest of our own”Justice” Dept, or more properly, the “Injustice Dept.”.
A lot of this comes from this administration not wanting to use those horrible entities known as spies.
Yo Bo, you’re not making any sense. Take a deep breath, speak rational thoughts.
Britain wanting the right to pursue warrants on US soil and the French legislation with the ability to go after CEO’s and taking away our right to encryption. Sounds like big brother and Hitler style stuff to me and a new world order!
I typed “encryption” into the App Store search box and found 201 apps.
Suppose, for a moment, that draconian regulations were installed, and imagine the terrorist threat withered away.
Would those regulations be rescinded? Of course not! They’d be turned against someone else.
No one has ever voluntarily surrendered their power over others, and that is the danger of granting it in the first place.
Government has transformed from being a public servant into a violent oppressor. They cannot be trusted and all efforts should be made to counter this terroristic threat.
Violent? That’s where you lost me, dude.
shock and awe ring a bell???
Damn you Obama, I supported you through thick and thin till now.
No more, you appointed a republican mole named Comey to head the FBI and let him attack the people’s right to privacy!
Damn you, everything you achieved is lost forever.
Hope “we” don’t wake up too late!
Are you stupid? You’re trying to blame only Republicans such as Comey for this? Have you not realized by now that it is the Obama administration that is demanding Apple create the backdoor? From where do think Comey’s orders originate? This is coming directly from Obama himself. Period. Get yourself out of denial.
Now for the sad reality check: Here’s the truth that gets almost everybody angry: Obama, Trump, and most of the established elected Senators and Representatives HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME POSITION ON THIS ISSUE. That is, they knowingly lie by stating that the FBI wants to unlock “only one phone” while full well knowing that they (the FBI via the Obama administration; it would be the same if, say, Bush or Clinton were still in office) are asking for a master key to unlock ALL iPhones.
Please stop trying to make this a political issue. We should all be alarmed that the majority of our so-called leaders of both major parties are willing to ignore the majority opinion of Americans on this issue.
The issue of personal privacy should be of paramount importance to all of us, regardless of how we vote. Put your partisan politics aside and look at the facts, as painful as this will be to you.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/politics/obama-administration-set-to-expand-sharing-of-data-that-nsa-intercepts.html?_r=0&referer=http://macdailynews.com/2016/02/28/obama-administration-set-to-expand-sharing-of-data-that-n-s-a-intercepts/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-19/secret-memo-details-u-s-s-broader-strategy-to-crack-phones
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/technology/apples-privacy-fight-tests-relationship-with-white-house.html?referer=http://macdailynews.com/2016/02/29/apple-ceo-cook-decried-obamas-lack-of-leadership-on-encryption-during-a-closed-door-meeting-last-month/
Valid point, Sucker. We’ll see how this eventually breaks down, but I think we are seeing more Republicans in favor of it than Dems. But it’s not yet a dramatic break-down. It must be very confusing for the Republican party, which wants smaller government, yet whose hawkish side leads them down this road of whatever it takes to defend this country. And just wait until we have another real terrorist attack on our soil (the big kind, not this small stuff). Sadly, this @%#* does not break down into plain black and white. But ultimately, our personal right to privacy seems paramount. But… it’s f’ing complicated. For those who suggest it’s not, consider how you’ll feel when we (the U.S.) get hit by something truly big. At that point, I think we will all agree that this discussion bleeds gray.
This stance doesn’t come without risk, since there’s no guarantee that Congress would give Apple what it wants.
This is about what We The People want! Hello!!!
Thank you Apple for sticking up for us!
Folk need to wake up and get a clue. This is not an argument playing out along party lines! By making it so, you are falling into a trap set by the Establishment – those that set the rules for any party/president in office regardless of political dogma. You make it easier for them by squabbling like disaffected children.
This is another example of why a Government shouldn’t request this sort of ability. It sets a precedent. If the US has it, what’s to stop China demanding it, or any other country where devices on sale? How does the US know that those countries won’t leak the methodology, that it won’t fall into the hands of people who will then use it to attack US citizens? They don’t. Are they then going to stop Apple from selling devices to non-US citizens?
It’s very telling how far we have fallen. It isn’t China, or Israel, or authoritarian Islamic countries demanding this.
It’s western democracies, most prominently the US, but now France, and I’m sure the UK and others will be making similar law enforcement demands and legislative moves soon.
Apple probably made these security and privacy moves in part to prevent things like India forcing Blackberry to hand over their encryption keys for communication through servers in the country, and maybe even to protect political dissidents in China and other authoritarian states. Never did they expect they’d have to go up against the so-called leader of the free world.
I think the Blackberry issue was one of the emirate states.
France already spoke. It will be law soon. Done. UK next. Then Germany.
I am not so sure about Germany. The current law requiring service providers to keep connection data (phone numbers, email address etc., but not content) has been met with a lot of resistance from all sides (including opposition lawmakers) and is very likely unconstitutional, both on national and EU level. Courts are working on it.
Germany has been a police state in total or in part in the recent past. They do not want that back.