The FBI’s fishing expedition for precedent ends just like tech-minded people thought it would. It did turn out to be an effective lesson in outing the right as much in favour of rights infringement as the left.
The end of this legal standoff also means that no legal precedent gets set for the scope of government’s power to compel an unwilling company to cooperate in an investigation, for instance by writing special new software as in Apple’s case.
The final score? Apple and Google increased their public profile, and Microsoft looked like gov’t hacks. The battle for and against private encryption remains in status quo. Way to go, FBI. /sarc
I don’t think so. The FBI were going to get in that phone one way or another. Apple could have been involved and had some control in the situation, now the FBI has to share nothing.
As for worries over security, regardless of what the pundits say the average phone user doesn’t care.
Ask not what the Military-Industrial Complex can do for you. Ask what you can do for the Military-Industrial Complex.
“The FBI were going to get in that phone one way or another”
I think the FBI is lying, again.
There is zero proof that they cracked that IPhone other than their say-so.
Here’s the rest of Eisenhower’s speech (the part that’s ignored):
[…]
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present–and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present–and is gravely to be regarded.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system–ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
But the REAL issue now is……the secret to cracking Iphones can now be marketed. Big mistake by Apple to not do it themselves and keep it close to the vest like the Coke formula!
Tim Cook doesn’t speak for me … any more than Edward Snowden speaks for me.
I have to agree with Oz. Once the feds realized they had no legal grounds to force Apple to cooperate, their next best course of action would be to save face and at the same time put Apple on their heels by insisting that they had cracked the phone themselves. They will never have to prove it because “national security” and it creates a perception that they always get what they want, with or without your help. Similar situations in the future will have the tech companies eager to cooperate in order to be able to control the message.
Having said that, I did read a couple weeks ago about an Israeli company insisting that they could crack an iPhone. This came to mind immediately when I read about “third party help”.
I don’t know much about this tech stuff but my daughter showed me she could break into my iphone in about 45 seconds
I would find it hard to believe that Israel hasn’t had private or government organisations working on that all along, every time a new phone comes out. They do not delude themselves about the scale or imminence of the threat.
keaner is right. The average phone user cares remarkably little about privacy and security. Unless their actual credit cards or bank accounts are affected, people just don’t care. Hence the nightmarish security situation with Android whereby carriers and vendors refuse to update phones once sold (unlike Apple, or even Microsoft which updates Windows weekly).
Possibly I’m cynical, but this is just what Apple would demand if the folded to gov demands. “Tell everybody it wasn’t us! Say it was some Israeli outfit, that sounds believable.”
I figured they had already “cracked” the damn thing, and they just took it to court to try and set a president. And I doubt they needed the Israelis to do it for them tho I have no doubt the Isrraelis could, or already had learned how to do that
Two quick thoughts:
1. Apple lost. People now know that their iPhone is hackable by people other than the govt. For people who DO care about security (as mentioned previously, that doesn’t seem to be many) this could be a big deal.
2. The FBI announcement could be what Apple wants everyone to think – ie: we aren’t caving to the govt while in reality in the background they are giving in to the FBI. I sort of doubt this scenario because of what I said in #1 above.
I’m quite sure that the FBI has an undeserved reputation for competence in every field they are involved in.
Why hasn’t Hillary Clinton been arrested yet?
Apple played a pretty good show of Integrity Theatre for its hipster audience. I think they actually handed over the contents of the phone as soon as they were asked. This has all been for show.
“Apple lost. People now know that their iPhone is hackable by people other than the govt. ”
Agreed. As a matter of fact, given the utter lack of ethics in any of Obammy’s administration, I’ll go so far as to say that this press release was solely for retribution purposes…maybe they haven’t opened the phone at all.
3. The FBI gave Apple their chance to unlock the phone and keep the algorithm to themselves. The nattered about third parties surreptitiously acquiring their work. Now a third party has done precisely that, quite legally and accomplishing what Apple claimed they couldn’t do. Now their security is up for grabs in the public domain, with unknown implications. That, plus the bad optics of uncooperativeness on security, puts Apple in a very bad light indeed.
Lots of implications for ongoing investigations. I understand unfaithful spouses, corrupted folks and criminals are disappointed in their loss of liberty. Some normal people are leery; fair enough. Why not err on the side of security, rather than privacy?
Fox just opined an Israeli company – Cellebrite, is the third party, and this:
“Monday’s news raises questions about the security of Apple’s devices and how the Justice Department was able to break into the phone. The FBI hasn’t said what company it’s working with or what method it used to access the data. Cellebrite, a privately held Israeli company that specializes in transferring and extracting data from phones, has been named in some reports as the third party helping the FBI unlock the iPhone, but neither the FBI nor Cellebrite has confirmed the reports.”
Apple was hoping to maintain the fiction their phone couldn’t be cracked. They failed epically; bad hair day for Apple, with a possible stock price haircut.
http://www.cnet.com/news/feds-unlock-iphone-5c-used-by-san-bernardino-terrorist-dont-need-apple/
So…does Apple now market their TOY as NOT secure & try to avoid liability from a Class Action…..
Nice to know they are not Exporting industrial grade Encryption (illegal for >50 Years)
Interesting that they (Apple)claim some type of GLOBAL rights (similar to US Constitution) of privacy. Is this an UN mandated human Right? Gibberish & Rubbish
“So…does Apple now market their TOY as NOT secure & try to avoid liability from a Class Action”
No need. It has not been proven that anyone, FBI included, can crack it.
Any lawsuit would have to prove that the IPhone is not secure.
It may shock some people, but it can easily be demonstrated that the FBI has lied in the past.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/fbi-admits-elite-fbi-forensic-unit-lied-in-court-for-decades/204573/
I could give you reams of similar links.
For anyone to be able to access all phones by breaking into one phone makes Apple negligent. Especially if Apple claims them to be secure. It’s like a lockmaker producing locks, all with the same key.
I guess can’t expect much more, another toy made in China. And the Chinese gov’t doesn’t allow corporations to operate without ‘special considerations’. China can access your Apple devices, why not the FBI?
Chinese communist officials won’t use iphone, wonder why?
Like the old party lines, except the only ones listening are criminals and criminal gov’t.
“China can access your Apple devices, why not the FBI?”
The issue was the FBI(U.S. government) compelling Apple to write a software program that doesn’t already exist.
Apple~”From the beginning, we objected to the FBI’s demand that Apple build a backdoor into the iPhone because we believed it was wrong and would set a dangerous precedent.”
China was not trying to compel a private U.S. company to do it’s government’s bidding.
Agreed. I’m not a conspiracy theory type person … but this was ALL kabuki theatre by BOTH the FBI and Apple.
IF Apple was cooperative with the FBI and had written a backdoor into their IPhone security for them, Apple would have done so in secret and the knowledge of it would never have seen the light of day, let alone litigation in open court.
The ‘kabuki theatre’ was the FBI losing their court bid and yet sending the message, “We are the FBI, We are Omnipotent.” “Big Brother is Watching.” all the while playing coy and saying, “No comment on an open investigation.” while literally making a statement about this open investigation.
China was not trying to compel a private U.S. company to do it’s government’s bidding.
They already have…
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-apple-china-20160226-story.html
The emphasis is on “undeserved”. It’s one bungle after another.
No, they haven’t.
Unless by COMPEL you mean Apple having continued access to that market with $59 Billion in sales last year.
I think the FBI may have gotten what they wanted too if they’d offered Apple $59 Billion dollars.
That said, the Apple phones that are sold in China don’t have the same encryption suite or apps as the ones sold in the U.S.
The profound lack of understanding of encryption and computer security by 99% of the commenters on every forum about this issue is why I haven’t been following the news.
Security is not a binary “secure – not secure” paradigm. There’s only “hard enough that the person who wants in your device will eventually stop trying and do something more productive”. iPhones were never “secure” (and now “not secure”). They were only ever “secure enough“.
I agree that this was entirely about the FBI throwing their weight around. They were never not going to get into that phone; they just wanted to poke Apple in the eye, given Apple and Google’s previous public statements about the security and privacy of their users.
Unless by COMPEL you mean Apple having continued access to that market with $59 Billion in sales last year.
Kinda like haggling over the price of a whore…the same description applies, no matter the price.
Danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
–
NSA, CIA, State Dept. Dept. of Justice, ATF, IRS, even your local SBI have Americans under surveillance..
President Eisenhower shared secrets with the American people that they didn’t understand back in the 1950’s.
Later my dad reminded me that the Vietnam War was nothing but a government conspiracy, setup and funded by the Military Industrial Complex.
Thousands of young men died, hundreds of thousand of others with psychology and bodily wounds that have never healed.
Think of all the wars since?
At least during the war my family made money producing products for the Military, but now that is all gone.
The government, and other corrupt corporations, many not even produced in America, make those same products, $700.00 dollar hammers, $1,200.00 dollar toilet seats, million dollar jeeps, and 12 million dollar Stryker assault vehicles, not to mention the other trillions of dollars of military equipment..
All this while the majority of Americans beg for 10 dollar an hour jobs at McDonald’s..
Old IKE was right…
No it isn’t. Just because you don’t understand the difference between haggling(which is quid pro quo) and brutal coercion doesn’t mean there isn’t a profound difference.
NO, Apple didn’t write the Chinese government a backdoor into the security suite American IPhones have.
Apple IPhones sold in China don’t have the same security suite as American phones do. Those IPhones for the Chinese market lack that American security suite just as they lack certain other apps that the PRC government doesn’t want it’s subjects to have on their phones.
Some fact checking going on at SDA..
Love it..
Keeps me on my Google toes… Uh, fingers..
Apple IPhones sold in China don’t have the same security suite as American phones do.
Duh, they’re made in China. $59 billion buys a lot from whore.
Let’s also remember that for many years, larger than 40 bit encryption was considered a munition under US export law and it was illegal to export software or hardware capable of generating it out of the US, except to specific partner countries.
Even today, it’s illegal to export high-grade encryption hardware/software from the US to specific countries, one of which is China. It’s not the PRC that’s preventing Apple from selling encrypted phones there, although I’m sure they’re happy about it.
The hardware is made in China.
The software isn’t, duh.
Read what Daniel Ream says above.
“….There is zero proof that they cracked that IPhone other than their say-so…”
You must be an Iphone owner who can not face the fact that your pride and joy was not that superior – impregnable – product you believed it was.
Apple phones are overpriced, they are in no way superior to the competition ( in some ways they are inferior; you can not even use SD cards, they have a fixed size memory !!) only Apple’s marketing is somewhat superior ( to an extent since millions of gullible people were fooled into believing Apple is better when it is obviously not, ask the FBI hahaha! ), and Iphones appeal to snobs who need the myth of Apple’s superiority to feel superior to other people because the fact is those people either feel inferior or know they are inferior.
Uncertainty can cause more stress than inevitable pain
Knowing that there is a small chance of getting a painful electric shock can lead to significantly more stress than knowing that you will definitely be shocked. A new study found that situations in which subjects had a 50 percent chance of receiving a shock were the most stressful while 0 percent and 100 percent chances were the least stressful. People whose stress levels tracked uncertainty more closely were better at guessing whether or not they would receive a shock, suggesting that stress may inform judgments of risk.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160329101037.htm
Nope, never used any Apple product.
You must be an FBI suck-up.
The FBI lies all the time. Get over it.
Doesn’t matter if China has Apple’s signing key. Threatening their $59 billion would buy those.
The FBI lies.
And Apple users lie.
Read it on your iphone.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S5. I have never used any Apple product.
Since you haven’t read the whole thread:
FBI Admits Lies:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/fbi-admits-elite-fbi-forensic-unit-lied-in-court-for-decades/204573/
I have never used any Apple product.
Neither have I; they’re far too pretentious.
Apple used this whole thing to get free publicity, and to perpetuate the myth that only Apple products have some type of security that is so ingenious even the FBI can not crack it.
We now know that is not true; many people can crack it.
Also Apple used this to have people believe that unlike Google and a few others, they would never cooperate with the ” big evil government”.
It is highly possible they did cooperate with the FBI – as most large companies have in the past – but lied about it for reasons stated above.
and if they did not cooperate, then it would not be an exaggeration to say that was unpatriotic.
What if we knew a dozen nuclear bombs will explode in the USA and tens of millions of innocent people will die , and the only way to stop this is to let the FBI get inside the Iphone of the master mind terrorist behind this, what would matter more?
Apple’s reputation ( and Apple’s myth ) or stopping this terror attack?
Does anyone seriously believe everything we do is not already recorded, and monitored?
the GPS in your cell phone tells them where you were when you took that photo of your wife
our emails are scanned for red flag words such as planning to assassinate the president
all our Google searches are saved, analyzed
your smart tv microphone and web cam can – and has been – turned on remotely to record your conversations
need I go on?
and now the FBI can get inside your iphone, big freakin’deal!! it was going to happen anyway.
this is the age we live in.
this is the price we pay for having access to the whole world in our living room; the whole world has access to us as well.
“Apple used this whole thing to get free publicity”
Sure. Apple needs free publicity. And they used the FBI to take them to court to get it. Uh huh.
“Apple products have some type of security that is so ingenious even the FBI can not crack it.”
That’s why the FBI took Apple to court, because they said they could not crack it.
“Also Apple used this to have people believe that unlike Google and a few others, they would never cooperate with the ” big evil government”.”
If the government can force you to work for them and write a software back door, they are evil. Maybe Google and a few others had already written a back door to their encryption and just gave it to the FBI. So what? If Johnny jumped off of a bridge, would you jump too?
“if they did not cooperate, then it would not be an exaggeration to say that was unpatriotic”
“Does anyone seriously believe everything we do is not already recorded, and monitored?”
Apparently you do, otherwise Apple wouldn’t be unpatriotic for not “cooperating” with the FBI.
“and now the FBI can get inside your iPhone”
I don’t have an IPhone. But if I did, the FBI still can’t get inside it because they couldn’t crack the encryption.
If the government can force you to work for them and write a software back door, they are evil.
How about corporations who turn a blind eye while reaping the benefits of using arms length forced labour? Are they evil?
How about the Catholic Church which owned half the arable land in Europe and used serfs to work it for a 1000+ years? Was it as evil as the corporations you allude to?
Six of one, half dozen of the other…what’s your point?
What’s your point?