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from the I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours dept.
Trump launches fresh attack on Apple over privacy:
US President Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on Apple.
He tweeted that the company was refusing to unlock iPhones "used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements".
On Monday US Attorney General William Barr accused Apple of not being helpful in an inquiry into a shooting that is being treated as a terrorist act.
It is the latest in a series of clashes between the White House and technology giants over access to data.
Mr Trump accused Apple of refusing to co-operate with investigators despite his administration helping the company on trade and other issues.
The president's comments came a day after Mr Barr said Apple had failed to provide "substantive assistance" to unlock two iPhones in an investigation into a fatal shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida.
Also at CNET
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @09:58PM (4 children)
More than that. Ask them how they would feel if China, Russia, Iran, or whomever could force Apple to unlock any phone they wanted. If one country can do it, any country can do it.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Friday January 17 2020, @12:31AM (1 child)
About the same as if the US could do it. In fact, they're possibly less of a danger to me.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @01:22AM
Perhaps my "them" wasn't obvious enough. The U.S. government through Barr, Trump, and others are the ones who keep asking for this in the media lately. The point I was trying to make is that I doubt they would appreciate the ability of China, Russia, or Iran to unlock any phone they wanted.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Friday January 17 2020, @02:42AM (1 child)
Why is everyone just uncritically accepting that they can't get into the phone anyway?
How about this;
US Intel agencies can own that phone. Surveillance targets keep acting as though they can't, and the intel agencies want to ride that train as far as it goes.
DOJ wants to be able to publicly talk/act about what's on the phone, but can't without revealing intel capabilities.
Apple isn't giving them cover. The DOJ thus far hasn't compelled them. We don't know the motives, or even that Apple hasn't been privately asked to refuse because protecting that intel source and creating PR convincing people the data is secure is the #1 mission.
So that's food for thought. It could be something like that and still look like just what we see. The information about what the actual truth is isn't publicly available.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @08:35AM
Very insightful. It's like when they illegally obtain information; and then, have to go about paving the legal path for said information, so they can use it. We are all owned, already, probably. What's going to bite everyone in the ass is when the definition of, 'terrorist', grows. It's grown significantly, and it will continue to grow; just like the definition of a witch or possessed person probably waxed and waned during the dark ages. People just aren't intelligent enough, or are actively benefiting from such a system, so as not to want to fight the status quo.
People seem to forget that who we consider heroes today, were people that were DEEPLY targeted by the FBI half a century ago. Martin Luther King Jr. had a huge file. People seemingly as benign as The Beatles were targeted.
Anywho, good point. I'm fairly certain you are spot-on.