The current Apple vs. the FBI privacy case is fast becoming one of the biggest tech stories of 2016. But Apple clearly believes it ought to be elevated even higher — telling a federal judge this week that the case should be kicked up to Congress level, instead of being decided by courts.
Apple fans rallied behind their privacy savior in more than 50 cities across the United States today to protest the FBI’s demands that Apple unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone and compromise the security of millions of users’ data in the process.
Grassroots protests broke out from Albuquerque to Washington, D.C., aiming to raise public awareness about the privacy battle Apple is fighting. The protesters had some harsh words for the FBI.
Grassroots protests against the government’s attempts to hack the iPhone are set to take place today in nearly 50 cities around the United States, beginning at 5.30pm local time.
“FBI Director [James] Comey has been repeatedly asking the White House and Congress for a backdoor to encrypted phones for the past year,” privacy advocates Fight for the Future representative Holmes Wilson tells Cult of Mac. “If he says he doesn’t want this kind of access going forward, he’s just lying, and you can see it in the public record.”
According to Wilson, this is why this story is such a big deal — and what Cult of Mac readers can do to get involved:
Tim Cook doubled down on his privacy position this morning, refusing to give in to the FBI’s demands to create an iOS backdoor so the bureau can unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.
In an email to employees with the subject line “Thank you for your support,” the Apple CEO says the company’s battle is about much more than a single iPhone or single investigation.
Tim Cook sent out an email to all Apple employees this morning, thanking them for their support and outlining the reasons why the FBI’s court order needs to be dropped.
“This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government’s order we knew we had to speak out,” Cook wrote. “At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people, and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties.”
Apple’s fight against the FBI continues to dominate headlines, with the company standing firm to protect its beliefs and the privacy of its users. But should it really be doing more to help law enforcement agencies?
No one who uses Apple products wants it to compromise the security of iOS by creating dangerous backdoors, but should it be working to find a safer solution that would provide the FBI with information when it’s needed?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over this hot topic — and be sure to weigh in at the end with your opinion!
Big tech companies might be supporting Apple’s pro-privacy stance when it comes to creating a backdoor for the iPhone, but not everyone is in complete agreement.
Specifically, the family of British soldier Lee Rigby — who was murdered by Islamic extremists in 2013 — has spoken out about Apple’s decision to refuse a court order to break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Rigby’s family says Apple’s stance is “protecting a murderer’s privacy at the cost of public safety.”
Apple is a fierce defender of its customers’ privacy, which is why every iPhone and iPad has its data encrypted by default. But according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Apple and CEO Tim Cook should show their bellies and let Congress decide whether encrypted data should be accessible through backdoors by government agencies.
Stolen!, the app that let you buy and sell Twitter users in a fictional exchange, has been taken off the App Store by its developers due to privacy concerns.
“The app is no longer available in the App Store,” the Stolen! team tweeted Thursday afternoon. “We’ve heard everyone’s concerns and have decided the best thing to do is to shut down.”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has branded a new proposed law banning encrypted communications in the U.K. as “stupid,” and says that if it is passed, Apple should stop selling iPhones in the country out of principle.
“I would like to see Apple refuse to sell iPhone in UK if government bans end-to-end encryption,” Wales posted on Twitter. “Does Parliament dare be that stupid?”
While you may chat about state secrets while on your Mac at work, you might not want your chats to get out there or be archived. The answer is to use encryption so no one can intercept your messages and figure out you’re really angry at your boss.
The Tor Project aims to make anonymous, off-the-record chats simple with a new instant messenger app you can run on your Mac or Windows PC. Simply run the app (now in beta), log in to your preferred instant messaging service or services, and talk about whatever you want, secure in the knowledge that your chats are safe from your boss’ prying eyes.
Apple banned over 250 apps from the App Store that were using software to access users’ personal information. These apps managed to get through the App Store approval process with private APIs, which are against the rules. Apple took action shortly after news broke this morning that a security firm discovered these apps.
A security firm claims to have discovered 256 apps that illicitly gather user email addresses, lists of installed apps, serial numbers and other identifying information.
Apple may be obsessed with user privacy, but these apps — which violate App Store policy and have been downloaded by an estimated 1 million people — somehow got by Cupertino’s gatekeepers.
Tim Cook participated in a recent interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel, in which he reiterates Apple’s stance on user privacy, discusses what it would take for Apple to bring its overseas cash pile back into the U.S. — and comically avoids talking about the Apple Car.
You can listen to it below.
Apple has updated its website with new details about about its privacy policy and how it uses customer data.
Under the heading “The most personal technology must also be the most private,” the site runs down all of Apple’s core services, and explains how Apple protects user data in each case.
Here are some of the highlights:
The F.B.I. and Department of Justice are so concerned about Apple’s pro-privacy iOS encryption that senior officials advocated taking Apple to court over the issue, according to a new report.
There are a dozen-odd ways to chat with people these days, from IM to Twitter direct messages to apps like Slack, Snapchat and GroupMe.
If you want to create your own with no more fuss than typing in a unique URL in your web browser, though, you can’t go wrong with hack.chat, a new, bare-bones, no-frills approach to private chat that looks like something out of the DOS era. And I mean that in a good way.
It’s dead simple to use (though you can also run your own server) and incredibly disposable. Perfect for those quick chats you need to make happen that you may not want on something like Slack, which keeps an archive of all the inappropriate comments you’ve ever written.
Apple has been eager to point out lately that unlike Google and Facebook it doesn’t collect or sell your personal information. It’s been a great way for the company to differentiate itself from its competitors and Apple has apparently won over Edward Snowden in the process.
In a recent interview, Snowden was asked whether he thinks Tim Cooks perspective on privacy has been genuine and honest, to which Snowden replied, “it doesn’t matter if he’s being honest or dishonest,” but “that’s a good thing for privacy. That’s a good thing for customers.”
Snowden pointed out that Apple obviously has a financial incentive to differentiate itself from competitors, and we should incentivize other companies to follow their path:
In a speech to nonprofit research firm Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) at its annual “Champions of Freedom” awards dinner last night, Apple head Tim Cook had some strong words about online security, government monitoring, and corporate data mining.
Cook was the first business leader to receive recognition from EPIC, which lauded his “corporate leadership” on matters of maintaining Apple customers’ privacy.
Anyone you exchange messages with via Facebook Messenger could know where you’ve been at any point. Chatted with your boss? He could use a newly discovered hack to figure out your sick days weren’t spent at home.
Facebook intern Aran Khanna found he could figure out where his friends were going daily with a bit of code, based solely on whether he had Facebook Messenger conversations with them. It even worked with people he wasn’t Facebook friends with if he had been in the same Facebook Messenger chat group.
He calls this code Marauders Map, and anyone can use it. Luckily, it’s fairly simple to hide your location from potential stalkers.
Apple has put its name to a letter which will be sent today, appealing to the White House to protect individual privacy rights in the face of suggestions that law enforcement should be able to access encrypted smartphone data via a backdoor.
“Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security,” argues the letter, which is signed by more than 140 tech companies, technologists, and civil society groups.
RadioShack’s bankruptcy proceedings have hit another interesting bump; Apple has joined the states of Texas and Tennessee in trying to prevent the liquidating company from selling off its customers’ data.
The latest complaint is just one more obstacle to RadioShack’s already checkered attempts to go out of business.
A woman claims her employer wrongfully fired and retaliated against her for deleting a location-tracking app from her company-issued iPhone, and she’s taking her case to court.
Myrna Arias, formerly of money-transfer company Intermex, took issue with how the bosses were using productivity software Xora, which includes GPS tracking to monitor and optimize business travel. She claims that her higher-ups were using the data to keep tabs on her and coworkers even during off hours and that they terminated her shortly after she removed the offending app.
With the advent of Apple’s motion coprocessor chip (the M8 in recent iOS devices), any apps that you download and grant permission to can use this data to enhance their offerings.
This lets apps like RunKeeper, Carrot Fitness and others both gather fitness data from your iPhone as well as send it to the Health app.
This could raise privacy concerns for some, so being able to decide which apps we allow to access our fitness-tracking data — or whether the iPhone tracks these activities at all — can be a helpful.
Here’s our recipe for getting finer-grained control over your fitness-tracking data.
Ben Marcus attracts attention whenever he flies his quadcopter and sometimes he lets the curious take the controls.
During those exchanges, many say this: That’s cool, but what about the privacy issues?
Marcus sensed that the concern about camera-outfitted drones unknowingly hovering over our lives was real enough that it could stunt the potential applications of drones.
So he started a company that will let people restrict their own air space.
NoFlyZone launched on Feb. 10 and already has more than 20,000 homeowners signed up to request drone pilots steer clear of their property.