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With the Australian Labor Party caving in on the proposed encryption law that will allow Australian police and agencies to access private data directly from vendors, the new proposed laws are now agreed in principle to introduce government level snooping of user messages and encrypted files. Agencies like ASIO or the Australian Federal Police will have the ability to request that telecommunications and tech companies help them with their investigations and compel companies to build ways to allow targeted access to encrypted communications data.
Previously: Australian Government Pursues "Golden Key" for Encryption
Five Eyes Governments Get Even Tougher on Encryption
Apple Speaks Out Against Australian Anti-Encryption Law; Police Advised Not to Trigger Face ID
Australia follows New Zealand to demand passwords
New Australian Push For Encryption Backdoor in Wake of Alleged Terrorist Plot
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Thursday December 06 2018, @12:27AM (9 children)
Oh, yes. That's the other part of this incredible stupidity. Apple may be locked out of Australia permanently. I don't see them giving enough of a shit, and it would give them fantastic PR elsewhere to fight against this as if Apple had principles at work. Same with Google and Twitter, and the other corporations. Are they going to go after Redhat? Ubuntu? FDroid? Australia won't be able to badger a foreign organization that effectively that doesn't give two shits in the first place. Like Telegram's response to Russia; Suck It!
Australia will need one hell of a firewall, and a content manager forced on every device, if they think that they can stop people from rolling their own. Point in fact, I don't think they are trying that at all, but instead going with 50k fines when you don't pony up the key. If that's impossible, fine.
That's what happens when you try outlawing algorithms and math.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mykl on Thursday December 06 2018, @02:34AM (2 children)
The wording is a bit more subtle (which you allude to at the bottom). If you have built something that can't be backdoored reasonably, then the government will leave you alone. This is their get-out-of-jail-free card for Apple to stay in the country. Every politician who voted for this knows they would be consigned to oblivion at the next election if the majority of the public lost their toys.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:20AM (1 child)
So it's all for show? Or to help Apple and the larger companies not have any competition from smaller vendors that have to cave?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday December 07 2018, @01:59AM
I think it's closer to the government demanding access as long as they think they can get away with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:13AM (5 children)
The funny thing is, I think that Apple does have some underlying principles. They are kind of screwy, and confusing, but yes, they do have principles. Despite the whole cathedral vs the bazaar thing, Apple seems to believe that your data is your data. Few other companies share that principle, although many companies share the cathedral outlook on business.
It should be evident that I'm no Apple Phanboi, but, yes, some of their policies and actions are pro-consumer / pro-customer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 06 2018, @04:19AM (4 children)
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/04/tim_cook_tech_jesus/ [theregister.co.uk]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:19PM (3 children)
Humorous. Good article, I like it.
Now, let's contrast Cookie to Gatesie. Did Billy Boy, or any of his subordinates, ever speak out against any evils, other than "pirating" Windows? I know the Gatekeeper moaned and groaned about people not understanding that they needed to PAY FOR MSDOS - ohhhh - I guess I first heard that about MSDOS 3 or so. Now, today, he's a mysogenist, or anthropologist, or philanthropist, or something like that. But, when he was running things, he wanted to hang all of us from the mizzenmast, or the middenmast, or something like that, if we didn't give him heaps of money. And, I'm pretty sure I've never heard Bill make any mention of any of humanity's other vices, or virtues.
However good or bad Apple might be, they seem to recognize vices and virtues.
I gotta quit this though. I don't want to be mistaken for an Apple Phanboi, or a Job's Phan. Go ahead, post more Evil Apple stuff. I'll shut up now.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:27PM (2 children)
Corporations speaking out about social issues is a relatively new trend.
Apple speaking out about how much they care about your privacy is a marketing move. It may be true, may not always remain true, and might not stop your data from leaking. Their fight with the FBI was the best press they could have had on this issue. But will they always remain "good"?
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(Score: 1) by DECbot on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
Apple wants to protect your data because that means they then retain a monopoly over your data. Thus, if advertiser B wants to know the likelihood you, an iThing user, likes to shop for underwear C, advertiser B knows that they can only go to Apple to buy the data.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday December 07 2018, @02:20AM
Actually, even Apple doesn't know that you like to shop for underwear C.
Apple can afford to be privacy focused, because they are in the business of selling hardware, not user data. You're right, their position helps sell more hardware than if they sold data to the highest bidder, so there's no reason for them to change their privacy position any time soon. That's what separates them from Google, Facebook etc, who rely on being data-pimps to survive.