U.K. Prime minister Theresa May has banned ministers from wearing Apple Watches during Cabinet meetings, due to fears that they could be hacked by Russian spies for use as listening devices, a new report claims.
Under the leadership of former prime minister David Cameron, several members of the cabinet wore Apple Watches, including former Justice Secretary Michael Gove. Mobile phones have also been banned for the same reason.
May’s decision comes days after she took what many are considering a veiled shot at Apple during a speech at the Tory party conference, in which she criticized a “household name” that is refusing to work with officials to fight terrorism, as well as “an international company that treats tax laws as optional extras.”
Previously, May was behind the U.K.’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill, a.k.a. the “snooper’s charter,” which set out a suggestion that companies could be forced to create backdoors in encrypted services like iMessage. Apple has spoken out against this draft law by saying it would “hurt law-abiding citizens.”
Despite its renewed focus on privacy and security, Apple is no stranger to having politicians barred from using its devices. President Barack Obama has previously acknowledged that he was stuck using a BlackBerry because of concerns that his iPhone might be compromised.
The subject of Russian hackers has been in the news a lot lately, with the obtaining of confidential emails from the Democratic National Congress during the U.S. election, as well as medical files for top international athletes.
Source: Telegraph
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.
9 responses to “Time’s up for Apple Watches in U.K. Cabinet meetings”
More likely she banned them because they can’t hack it themselves. Everybody knows May is a far-right fascist and is pretty much against ANY freedoms, working diligently for years to take as much away from people as she possibly can, introducing spying bills etc.
I honestly hate people connecting Far-Right with Fascism. Fascism is simply government giving corporations preferential treatment or monopolies. Like how Hitler gave VW a monopoly on motor vehicles in Germany. And if you wanna call Hitler, the SOCIALIST a far right fellow, then you need to take a political science course.
What you have is a authoritarian, get your labels right!
You mean like Samsung in South-Korea?
Idk, is Samsung subsidized and given an official monopoly by their government,
Samsung and Government in South Korea is basically the same thing.
It is part of the Chaebol-corporate structure.
Well then yes they would be by definition fascist. Most socialist countries are. For example any country that has a socialized health care system that uses corporate hospitals would also be fascist, for example Canada. Fascism for everyone!
I thought fascist was a way of controlling a country. A government-type; like Democracy. Not something companys could be.
I am sorry but your definition is quite wrong. Sweden is not a fascist country for example.
Fascism is also far to the right, where as socialism is on the left side of the political scale.
The issue we have is that the term fascism has been twisted over the years to fit what scholors want to frame Germany and its allies as. The reality is fascism sources originally from strict government controlled economies using capitalist systems to facilitate it (corporations in this case) where as communism being the opposite where there is no currency nor corporations. Corporations arnt fascist, governments that give corporations preferential treatment and legal monopolies are fascist. In most countries in the western world we have socialist/capitalist systems. Where government take centralized control of certain sectors of the economy and gives corporations legal monopolies and powers. Thus making it fascist. However not all western countries use this method, some have government run hospitals for example and others corporate run monopolies protected by the government.
Because we don’t live in an absolute authoritarian fascist society we appear more free. But we use many fascist systems of power. If you wanna plot it on the political map it would be anything from about middle top left to top far right. Communism thus left of that.
Could sb give her a tin foil hat….