Apple is doubling down on its beliefs about user privacy, by working on a new encryption method that will mean it can no longer decode user information stored in iCloud.
While Apple has steadfastly refused to create an iPhone backdoor during the current case concerning the phone belonging to one of the suspected terrorists in last year’s San Bernardino shooting, it has turned over data shooter Syed Rizwan Farook had backed up on its iCloud service. Under its new encryption efforts, the company would no longer be able to do this.
This would pose another dilemma for law enforcement who, according to law firm partner and former Virginia federal prosecutor Edward McAndrew, “very significantly and very often” rely on iCloud data during investigations.
There’s no word on exactly when Apple plans to upgrade iCloud security, but apparently the company is trying to work out how to do this in a way that doesn’t inconvenience users by adding unnecessary complexity.
Hey, you can’t accuse Apple of not following through on its beliefs in this case, can you?
Source: WSJ
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
