“Silicon Valley executives who threw their support to Apple in its standoff with the FBI may be surprised to see their senior U.S. senator, Diane Feinstein, co-sponsoring a bill that would force Apple to comply with the bureau’s court order,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “They shouldn’t be.”
“Feinstein, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is one of the National Security Agency’s best friends in Washington,” P.E.D. reports. “After Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations of NSA mass surveillance, Feinstein came to the spy agency’s defense, calling Snowden a ‘traitor’ and writing legislation that would establish a legal framework for the NSA’s surveillance program.”
“Her FISA Improvements Act met fierce opposition,” P.E.D. reports. “Republicans on the Intelligence Committee complained that it would ‘codify the government’s authority to collect the phone records of huge numbers of law-abiding Americans, and also to conduct warrantless searches for individual Americans’ phone calls and emails.’ The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation were among 54 public interest groups urging opposition.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The war continues.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1961
To set a stronger alphanumeric passcode on your iOS device that cannot be easily brute-forced:
1. Settings > Touch ID & Passcode. On devices without Touch ID, go to Settings > Passcode
2. Tap Change Passcode
3. Tap Passcode Options to switch to a custom alphanumeric code
4. Enter your new, stronger passcode again to confirm it and activate itSEE ALSO:
Snowden: U.S. government’s claim it can’t unlock San Bernardino iPhone is ‘bullshit’ – March 10, 2016
Apple’s Eddy Cue: Next the government will want to turn on your iPhone’s camera or microphone – March 10, 2016
FBI Director James Comey’s war on Apple and privacy is becoming a political problem for Obama and the Democrats – March 9, 2016
How Apple’s clarion call united the entire tech industry against U.S. government overreach – March 8, 2016
Apple CEO Cook decried Obama’s ‘lack of leadership’ on encryption during a closed-door meeting last month – February 29, 2016
Obama administration set to expand sharing of data that N.S.A. intercepts – February 28, 2016
Apple’s fight with U.S. could speed development of devices impervious to government intrusion – February 24, 2016
Petition asks Obama administration to stop demanding Apple create iPhone backdoor – February 19, 2016
Obama administration claims FBI is not asking Apple for a ‘backdoor’ to the iPhone – February 18, 2016
Obama administration wants access to smartphones – December 15, 2015
Obama administration war against Apple just got uglier – July 31, 2015
Obama’s secret attempt to ban cellphone unlocking, while claiming to support it – November 19, 2013
Commissar Feinstein.
Feinstein is the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. People like that don’t become enlightened till they are no longer in charge, on the outside, looking in at someone else with the power calling the shots.
Then – they get it.
She really needs to go back to Miss Lube Oil of 1954.
What does the fb1 have on Feinstein or her husband?
I like how MDN and some of you guys try to slant this as Democrats want to spy on people. PATRIOT act anyone?
BOTH parties are complicit in the ‘Patriot’ Act.
Always ready to share the blame, huh?! You could use your statement (both parties are complicit) to spread the blame for nearly any government activity.
I do not deny that many Democrats were involved in passing the Patriot Act. However, if you really want to be fair and balanced, you should step up to the plate and admit that Republicans drove the passage of the Patriot Act of 2001.
Here is the data:
Rep: Yea-211 Nay-3 NV-5
Dem: Yea-145 Nay-62 NV-4
Ind: Yea-1 Nay-1 NV-0
Tota: Yea-357 Nay-66 NV-9
So, you see, the Republican Party was a lithe *more* complicit. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
To be fair, government surveillance started a long, long time ago. Its methods are simply improving, thus enabling much broader scope of application. But the major escalation began with the Patriot Act.
Those are the facts that you do not see and will never see on Fox News or any partisan media site. If you want to take credit for the successes, then you had damn well better take responsibility for the failures and mistakes!
Not gonna go there. I’m staying above the fray from a perspective that clearly sees two political parties that are both ruining the USA using various strategies.
And no, I won’t ever take responsibility for the actions of others. I take responsibility for MY actions, blundering or blistering as they may be.
Fair enough. But then do not try to spread the stink across everyone. There is nothing wrong with assigning blame when it is appropriate. It is called accountability.
In addition, you cannot step back from the fray and claim that you have no involvement, no blame. If you voted, then you were involved. If you did not vote, you were involved. And if you make statements that condemn a situation, but take no material action, then you bear some blame for the outcome. That is the real world. This is the MDN forum where fantasy rules.
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Clarification: If you are not from the U.S.A then your claim may have some merit. Unless, of course, you are from England, the country which drove people across the Atlantic to found this crazy nation… along with France and others.
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And it is also worth posting the House voting data for the Patriot Act Renewal of 2006:
Rep: Yea-214 Nay-13 NV-3
Dem: Yea-66 Nay-124 NV-11
Ind: Yea-0 Nay-1 NV-0
Tota: Yea-280 Nay-138 NV-14
Pesky facts…
Here’s something to agree on: Kill the ‘Patriot’ Act, period. It was born out of government fraud and continues to be used to clobber We The People both irrationally, irresponsibly and unconstitutionally. It should never have been created.
There you go…with that I can certainly agree
Oh, so she’s not a dem? She only gets away with her outlandish positions on everything because she’s a dem in a dem infested state. In many other clear thinking states she would have been booted years ago. Real term limits are WAY overdue.
Feinstein Is jumping the gun before understanding the ftechnical facts and ramifications of her knee jerk reaction to fear.
No balance or grit and of course the republikkkans will join her hysteria.
Just watch this. It explains everything. It is a long running project to slowly take away your rights an liberties until generations in the future think it’s “just normal” to live like 1984.
Except DARN! They haven’t quite been effective enough yet in returning humanity back to the state of being barefoot and ignorant peasants. No doubt, they’ll try harder.
#Neo-Feudalism
Democracy has been undermined by moneyed interests, specifically multinational corporations. All politicians are puppets of the people who paid to put them in power.
In other words, neo-feudalism is corporatism. Our democratic government would work just fine if we got corporations and money out of the election system. Sadly, we have people even on this forum that cheerlead their favorite corporation — which is beholden to no one — over their own democratically elected representatives.
I don’t care how much you agree with your favorite corporate leader today or how awesome their products make you feel, it is suicide to keep allowing corporations to gerrymander our republic. Apple included.
Vote all the bums out, and start electing rational people into office who work to improve all of society, not just the corporate elites who currently run the show.
Neo-feudalism is all about money, power, control, aristocracy, game playing. We The People get to play the pawns. It’s a sickness that the USA, of all countries in human history, should be RESISTING and stopping dead.
As for Apple, they are blatantly an exception. This is one direct reason why other, lousy, corrupt, customer-hating, self-destructive companies have and continue to HATE Apple. I’m sorry you don’t get it.
As for ‘vote the bums out’, there have to be ALTERNATIVES to bums. When the two party system offers ONLY bums, we’re screwed. Welcome to exactly TODAY.
My concept: Consider both Republicans and Democrats to be dead parties and seek representatives of We The People elsewhere.
Of course she does. For those of us living in CA this is no surprise. Di-Fi is more Republican than some Republicans.
Fulminating over Democrat/Republican or Progressive/Conservative is a case of barking up the wrong trees.
The problem is one of statism; placing the state above the citizens, and its adherents come from both sides. The longer it take people to understand this, the longer they can continue to screw you over and get away with it.
For the elected government officials we TRUST to protect our rights!
THIS TERRORIST IN SAN BERNARDINO IS MAKING THEM CHANGE POLICY – how about that! THAT MEANS THEY WIN – do they not see this!
Does Dianne Feinstein NOT GET IT… VOTE HER OUT
OMF what a stupid…
Of course she does. This woman has been an embarrassment to rational freedom conscious Californians forever. She is the biggest fan of government overreach there is. She is a pompous elitist self-aggrandizing crackpot. She is the epitome of the liberal mindset in general, and the darling of the rich California liberals. She is as big an anti-Constitution Democrat as Obama.
She is a “staunch defender of NSA practices” (Foreign Policy).
She’s pure politics and money. She’ll praise the NSA out of one side of her mouth and criticize the CIA for doing the same thing out the other.
A has been if there ever was one! I hope she is up for re-election and finds herself on the outside looking in.
doesn’t matter about democrats or republicans.
Exactly. Statists come from both sides.
The usual reminder:
What we’re watching is an attempt to impose Totalitarianism in the USA. There is no special party affiliation for Totalitarianism. It’s a form of government FAILure that’s endemic to both the ‘right’ and the ‘left’. If there’s FAILure of those in power, of any stripe, they’ll use Totalitarianism as a method of IMPOSING control over We The People.
This is entirely about POWER and CONTROL. It’s about FAILed governments DEMANDING that We The People SERVE THE GOVERNMENT instead of the right way around.
So no kids, don’t blame just one political party. Blame them BOTH. We The People rule, never them.
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I like to be a little more selective than “blame everyone,” DC. But I understand what you are saying and I agree that both parties bear the blame in varying degrees for a wide range of government activities that should never have taken place.
Perhaps if people cease affiliating with political parties and their ossified platforms, we could have some useful and productive discussions in this country.
‘Blame everyone’ was never stated. That’s called exaggeration. Stick to exactly what I stated.
And please don’t enable the bullshit of one party and not the other. Bullshit is bullshit no matter the source.
Feinstein is a Democrat In Name Only. She is a corporatist in the pocket of every monied special interest in Washington. Her and her developer husband have been scamming taxpayers over selling off Post Offices that sit on highly valuable Real Estate, among other things.
She is all in with the National Security State, many of the companies having significant operations in California Your privacy rights mean nothing in light of her ability to make money.
Ed Snowden is a hero- Feinstein is the traitor.
Don’t be confused – majorities of both parties are corporatist. Probably more so in the R camp, but looting the country and handing it over to the super-elite is a bipartisan effort.
Otherwise, I agree with you. Feinstein is an authoritarian, for sure.
Sorry to break it to you, but FineSwine is solidly in the mainstream of today’s Democratic party. They love that wall street money, and they never saw a power-grab they didn’t like.
-jcr
Feinstein yet again adds evidence supporting the theory that she is a DINO.
Diane Feinstein often champions the constitutional rights of The People so long as those persons are a minority group. When it comes to the same rights for the majority she is either silent or advocates taking them away, as she is doing with this proposal. She may also be doing this as a political stunt, knowing that the measure will not pass, but getting others on record as being pro-terroist or anti-LE (law enforcement) for use as a political bludgeon during elections.
Feinstein either has an inborn need to move the US toward kakistokratic dictatorship or she feels pressured by the NSA to make it more powerful than the 4th Amendment because, you know, the NSA has reams of blackmail data on her which she does not want the NSA to reveal.
But regarding the overreaching FBI’s anti-4th Amendment behavior toward Apple, it’s fundamentally a power play; The National Security Police State Apparatus hates competition, especially from the US Constitution.