“Theresa May launched a thinly veiled attack on Apple, Facebook and former BHS boss Sir Philip Green in her speech to Tory party conference today,” Mikey Smith reports for The Mirror. “She told party faithful she was putting people in positions of power on notice that “a change must come.””
“In a barely disguised swipe at Apple and Facebook, she attacked ‘household names’ who refuse to work with authorities to fight terrorism,” Smith reports. “It will be seen by many as a reference to both tech giants refusing to allow police and security services access to their encrypted messaging services.”
Smith reports, “Theresa May had a protracted battle with privacy campaigners and tech firms over her ‘snooper’s charter’ – which demanded Police and security services be able to break into private messages even if they are encrypted.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Another politician who doesn’t understand that encryption is binary; it’s either on or off.
You cannot have both. You either have privacy via full encryption or you don’t by forcing back doors upon Apple. It’s all or nothing.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook
Without strong encryption (meaning no back doors), U.S. companies’ tech products would be eschewed around the world.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Tim Cook touts encryption at Senator Orrin Hatch’s Utah Tech Tour – October 3, 2016
Feckless FBI unable to unlock iPhone, even with a ‘fingerprint unlock warrant’ – May 12, 2016
FBI’s Comey says agency paid more than $1 million to access San Bernadino iPhone – April 21, 2016
Nothing significant found on San Bernardino’s terrorist’s iPhone – April 14, 2016
FBI director confirms hack only works on older iPhones that lack Apple’s Secure Enclave – April 7, 2016
Apple responds to FBI: ‘This case should have never been brought’ – March 29, 2016
Tough shit, bitch. While I commend her for going after the scourge of Fakebook (and Twatter), Apple is hands off.
Hypocrite… douchebagsayswhat?
…speaking of bitch.
I’m a little surprised that the banking industry, which seems to have a lot of influence with politicians, hasn’t helped them come to the realization and encryption is a business necessity.
Because the owners of said banking industry want encryption for themselves but not for everyone else.
Kind of like politicians want laws for everyone but themselves.
Ah, yes, but they are likely to be more cognizant of the fact that it’s ALL or NONE, in terms of security.
Brexit stage left, Theresa.
Good luck with that economy.
You are no Norway.
It may be hard to understand why Brexit was a massive, massive win for the UK (because you know Bo Diddly about any country but America) but we should never have joined the EU in the first place. Stop letting CNN do your thinking. Go to the library, get a history book NOT published in the last 15 years and do some reading.
Now we have another lady Prime Minister – with more balls than your last four presidents combined – we’re free to set our own rules and reestablish our sovereignty, and that includes dictating to foreign tech firms what we find acceptable for our security needs and what we do not.
Hey limey, the sun has long set on the british empire…
lol, i agree…. unfortunately. some over here have illusions of grandeur… rule britannia, and all that pish 😂😂
Hey ‘breeze’.
That is exactly the expected response.
American government schooling at it’s very finest.
I do want to say this:
The Prime Minister David Cameron brought the Brexit vote.
He believed in the EU and felt so confident the vote would be to remain that he was willing to put his beliefs to the test.
*NO* American president would have the balls to do such a thing.
When the vote came down against him he accepted the fact that his continued leadership would not be in the best interests of the country, and he resigned.
Can you imagine ANY power hungry coward like Clinton, Obama or Bush would do such a thing???
Not in a million years.
The sun is rising again on the British my ignorant friend. We have a real leader at the helm once again.
Meanwhile you are on the verge of choosing between a slimeball and an idiot for your next so called president, and the press has already decided who will win.
“American government schooling at it’s very finest.” Really, John? It’s your own language and you don’t even know the difference between “it’s” and “its”?
Since your own inferior education has obviously manifested itself in a manner that speaks for itself, let me offer you some help:
http://learnyourdamnhomophones.com/
That my good sir is called auto-correct.
I learned the difference between it’s and its when I was 9.
Notably, there’s been no attempt to actually answer anything I’ve posted here.
Unsurprisingly.
You are 100% deluded. China is going to eat us for breakfast, because look at the f**king idiots we have running the country. Liam Fox, Boris Johnson, et al, and all dancing to the tune played by f**king swivel eyed loons.
And the other European powers will simply grab their popcorn and watch “England and Wales” go down. You and your kind are arseholes, and you are going to ruin the UK.
I’m sure that will all be someone else’s fault too. Wankers.
what a crock of pish….. speak for yourself, your view is a minority one, certainly not scottish, or Irish for that matter. re-establish our soverngty …. pleezzzze enough of the little englander shite !!
My dear chap, are you typing with your face? 😀
My view is in fact the majority one.
Scots voted to remain in the Union and the Union voted to leave the EU.
I was referring to the sovereignty of our laws with regard to our nation’s security, you know, the topic of the PM’s comments in this article…
firstly, i am not your dear…..you will also know that scottish people voted to remain in the EU as well, and your point does nothing more that highlight the democratic deficit of the current U.K. set up. The sovereignty of our laws, do us a favour!!! and stop sounding so righteous !! Our sovereign laws were doing just fine, before dope dab, decided to play fast and loose to appease the faciacist element within the tory party.
I have no idea what a “faciacist” is.
All you’ve done so far is show that you are angry and irrational and that you find grown up conversations infuriating.
And you have the nerve to poke at Tories??
What did the one eyed Scottish c*nt (as Clarkson called him) do for the UK?
Well, Corbyn is worse. He sacking Benn, Heidi Alexander quit, the whole lot know they’re in a sinking ship. FINALLY though the country is waking up to the fact that Labour is nothing but a breeding ground for thugs and doleys and has been since the days of coal strikes.
This is how you are just in a forum like this. If we were at the pub at this point you’d be shouting and threatening physical violence.
Do you have any idea what Brussels was requiring of us?
Our laws were not “doing just fine” at all.
Posting ” little englander shite” comments here do nothing but drive the point home. People are tired of stupidity being the norm and they’ve voted accordingly.
John, excellent defense of the UK’s choice of liberty and self-government…nationalism is a good thing when the nation’s laws are based on good.
I can’t speak for Jim, but I do know quite a bit about the UK. You may want to paint May as the second coming of Thatcher, but I suggest you hold your breath until May negotiates her way across the tightrope. From all appearances, it looks like she’s doing everything in her power to slow down the process. Of course, with asshats like Boris Johnson, Liam Fox, and David Davis involved in the Brexit planning process, you know Britons will get screwed. So May’s popularity may crash if as we see so far May does not follow through on any of the vague promises that the Brexit campaigners made. NHS may not receive additional funding as promised. Points-based immigration may not pass. British taxes may not be lowered. Trade regulations are up in the air, and all experts estimate they will not come down in favor of the UK. On the other hand, it would be better for all Britons if a few self-serving politicians crash and burn instead of taking the economy down. And the UK economy is stagnating.
So there you have it. All the reasons for going it alone have been overblown and the promises one by one appearing hollow. Meanwhile business investment is slowing and the Pound grows weaker.
Today even before the UK severs its ties with its closest trading partners, the Pound is at a 30 year low in value. it’s continued to lose for the last year — i.e., since the pro-Brexit scaremongering began. http://x-rates.com/graph/?from=EUR&to=GBP&amount=1
To date, Theresa May hasn’t come up with a single tangible piece of good news for Britain as an outcome of this disastrous change in foreign relations. Merry Old England has cast itself adrift and will become just another former world power pretending that by standing alone it can maintain a superior quality of life. Pretty hard to do since like the rest of Europe and the US, the UK is strongly reliant on imports for its material goods. Those goods are going to become more expensive, not less.
What are you blabbering about? Many who voted for Brexit now have regrets.
Some truly did want out from under the thumb of perceived EU hegemony, not realizing that many odd product and service trade rules were homegrown. Some were concerned about immigration within the EU city no the classic example of the polish plumber stealing a hard working bloke’s job. This disputed all empirical evidence that reduced trade hurts the working poor much more than the wealthy. Some were concerned that the migrants of Calais would storm the coast and bring Islam and pandemonium to island. And some thought is was a class warfare thing where the so called elites were using the EU and global trading system to their benefit to the detriment of the little man. The Brexit vote was all over the map, made possible by opportunistic politicians using nativist propaganda, and by a very confused electoral. (Sounds eerily similar to what’s been happening on the other side of the pond.)
Brexit may well lead to the breakup up the U.K. and Great Britain. This vote was an act of self immolation, not liberation.
Well, looks like if you really want to combat terrorism, you have to start by taping government’s communications and not people’s.
Oh yeah, quoting Jesse Ventura will really help you make a strong case.
Michaele, get back in your Irredeemably Unfückable basket.
Thank you troy. Excellent point. Ignore the *Ding*bats.
I certainly do. 😀
She has got enough on her hands with Brexit!!
The rest is smoke and mirrors.
Politicians always look for the unreasoning emotion in what they want to get public support, a cousin to mob mentality. If they get into a kettle of fish getting what they want and other far more heinous security repercussions ensue they’ll find the same people to blame instead of themselves and their stupidity.
That’s exactly the story of FBI Chief James Comey. Then after HIS emotional appeal for ‘security’ over US constitutional freedoms, he asks what we have an UNemotional discussion of the issue. Disingenuous is the word.
Then add to that his entrenched and determined technology ignorance. What a guy.
Well Apple’s new mega head office in London is going to be conveniently located close to the MI6 building so could come in handy.
Theresa May imagines that she lives in a world where by declaring that something is so, it will turn out that way. Unfortunately the rest of us live in the real world.
This story is an example of it applying in the technology sector, but we also see it with regards to Brexit – their belief that they will negotiate beneficial deals which the other parties are saying will not happen. It’s the same with the immigration – insisting that immigration will be greatly curtailed, while overlooking the fact that vast sectors, from universities through healthcare to crop piking all rely to a huge extent on people freely moving into the UK to work in those industries. Similarly we are being told that businesses are now prospering – the reality is that with the pound having plummeted to it’s lowest value for more than 30 years, buying from UK sources is suddenly attractive to foreigners, but once all the products have been sold and new raw materials need to be purchased, imported raw materials will have risen in price by 15-20%, which will create formidable problems for companies.
The present UK government routinely eschews the advice of experts unless they agree with their proposals. Their task is made much simpler by an overwhelmingly supportive media who willingly adopt talking points and report them as though they are facts. The major problem with all of this deceit, arrogance and foolishness is that reality is going to catch up with them in a big way.
Got it in one. The usual trope is that this will benefit the car industry, but once the fall in the UK pound starts to hit the component supply chain, much of which is spread across Europe then the sums will start to look much less rosy.
The other thing overlooked is regulatory compliance. At present you can build a gearbox in Stuttgart, stick it on a lorry and ship it to the UK without let or hindrance. Once we’re out of the EU then that shipment will need to carry the paperwork to prove compliance leading to hold-ups, delays etc. The impact on a supply chain constructed to just-in-time principles, could be horrendous and seriously damage the prospects for UK manufacturing.
She completely understands that encryption is either on or off. She doesn’t care. She is in government. She doesn’t fear government abuse as she should. She doesn’t comprehend that SHE is the reason strong encryption is needed, far more than terrorists or thieves.
And as politicians go, she’s one of the better ones.
Problem is, if you said to her, “I’m more concerned about the safety of my civil liberties, and my freedom in general, than I am about being blown up by a terrorist,” she’d scoff and call you an “anarchist” when nothing is further from the truth.
Every ounce of power given to government reduces the freedom and viability of the people. Those who become part of the government, from the lowest cop to heads of state quickly forget that they serve at the behest of the people, that it is our hard work, our creation of wealth, that completely pays for their existence and that they do little more than confiscate and consume the wealth of the people.
Yeah yeah, the government builds roads. This is true, but that is not the issue. When you keep giving governments the power to interfere in your private lives and your business lives, it becomes a burden. Over time it becomes a malignancy feeding on the prosperity, affluence, comfort, and security of the people, with the sole purpose of preserving and growing itself.
This is what civil libertarians fear, the gradual but steady dissolution of freedom, the cessation of liberties, all to supposedly make life safer and better.
In the U.S. our government is already telling us what we can think and what we can believe.
Diminishing our privacy, our ability to communicate with one another without fear of being overheard is probably the most important freedom we have.
Do not surrender it folks. Do not surrender any freedom easily, even if YOU happen to believe someone else shouldn’t have it.
The only currency you can purchase freedom with is blood, and much has been spent in countries like the U.K. and the U.S to provide us with the freedom we take for granted. Once surrendered to a monstrous central government, no matter how inconsequential it might seem to your daily life, remember that people would likely have to die to recover it. That’s what you’re giving away.
So no, do not let your so-called “leaders” have access to your encrypted communications. They certainly wouldn’t surrender theirs to you. And keep letting your technology vendors know that privacy and security are the top of your concerns, even over battery-life, and the latest Kabby-shit processors.
After all, what good is all this advanced technology if in the future you’re afraid to use it. When the CEO of Facebook is putting stickies on HIS computer camera, we are already in trouble.
Ironic no?
The country that shouts about their freedom the most is actually the least free.
All those guns have done nothing to stop mass snooping have they?
I actually remember the day you got your Patriot Act. It stuck in my memory because it was the single biggest rogering of your freedom in 200 years and it was accomplished without a single shot being fired.
I respect you Mr. thetheloniousmac, I really do, but your real enemy is yourself, not your government. Those in office are not alien overlords, they are you.
You voted in a succession of weak leaders because you are weak.
You voted for men and women without a moral backbone because you simply don’t care.
I recall when Clinton was getting BJs in the Oval Office. I thought, well, that’s his presidency down the tubes.
Instead of kicking him out on his ear though you laughed at Leno’s cigar jokes.
Now you’re about to vote in ANOTHER CLINTON.
As you become more and more left wing you should expect less and less freedom.
The government is not dictating what you can believe, you are.
You support the media which enforces political correctness, you support left wing groups such as the ACLU and NOW, and you let it degrade to the point where the political system is totally corrupt. Any candidate that shows up at the primaries with moral clarity is pounced on by the media, leaving only the amoral and unscrupulous to run.
What the blank did you think was going to happen?
What outcome were you expecting??
Apple is fighting a losing battle because the high ground they claim is actually a valley. Don’t think so? Tell me, who does Cook and every other silicon valley tech company support?
Clinton.
Case closed.
Shuttleworth, I don’t disagree with you at all. 5 star comment. When you say the real enemy is ourselves, you are absolutely right. We are the government, we create the government. I have seen the enemy and they is us. This is why I try to appeal to people to stop creating the monster. It needs to be muzzled and leashed and only the people can do this.
I appreciate your consistently balanced and considered comments on this site.
I’ve come to realize that the root cause of the mess we’re in may well be the press. Routinely distorting facts, ignoring pertinent information, it is impossible for people to know more than what they’re told and unreasonable to expect good from the results.
I have had a series of situations where I had personal knowledge of a situation, then read press reports that contained numerous egregious errors. That is bad enough, but that is coupled with blatant bias as well.
One illustration:
The Democratic candidate was unavailable for comment.
The Republican candidate refused repeated requests for an interview.
We can agree though that we have only ourselves to blame in the end.
I think the government can’t stand the notion of not getting in. They want strong encryption and a back door.
The notion that Russia or another hacker can break in, is a risk they are willing to take.
They want strong encryption for the protection of communication of national interest. They want to get into everyone else’s communication for the protection of national interests.
See the problem here? It’s having one’s cake and eating it, problem. There is a slight grey area, but given time it’s a black and white, binary issue.
Given national secrets, time is security, because relivancy changes on a day to day sometimes – hour to hour basis. For the common person (us) that’s not true, because we don’t like change.
I just don’t see a winning option here. We need privacy for our own well being. We also ask for protection against adverse risks. The governments also want to limit adverse risks, and they see encryption as an obstical.
Theresa May:
Outright TOTALITARIAN.
A vote of ‘no confidence‘ can end that citizen abuse. Make it so.