NYPD chief: iOS is a gift to ‘kidnappers, robbers and murderers’

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
Public enemy no. 1?
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

Making it sound like the 2016 version of a souped-up getaway car, NYPD counter-terrorism chief John Miller described iOS as the perfect tool for “kidnappers, robbers and murderers” in a recent interview — all due to its uncrackable privacy policy.

“You are actually providing aid to [felons] who have actually been recorded on the telephones in Riker’s Island telling their compatriots on the outside, ‘You gotta get iOS 8. It’s a gift from God,’ — and that’s a quote — ‘because the cops can’t crack it,’” he said — referring to Apple’s current privacy standoff with the FBI.

“I still don’t know what made [Apple] change their minds and decide to actually design a system that made them not able to aid the police,” Miller told John Catsimatidis in an interview on Catsimatidis’s The Cats Roundtable radio show.

Miller is referring to Apple’s continued involvement in the legal case involving San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone, which the FBI wants Apple to help it unlock — although Apple has argued that creating an iOS backdoor would compromise user security and privacy.

Miller is far from the first person in law enforcement to speak out about Apple’s strong encryption and refusal to create an iPhone backdoor. Last month, Manhattan D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. made clear that he was not on the side of tech companies acting like “sherrifs” in a world with “no rules.”

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has also spoken out about the “corporate irresponsibility” of having smartphones with strong encryption.

Amidst the concern, however, Apple has continued to be vocal about its stance on user privacy. Most recently, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, took to the pages of the Washington Post over the weekend to argue that the FBI and Justice Department’s proposal is “disappointing.”

Unfortunately for Apple, I don’t think we’re going to see the end of encryption-related fear-mongering any time soon!

Source: NY Daily News

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