US politicians furious at UK demand for encrypted Apple data

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yvn90pl5no

by Aggressive_Plates

26 comments

  1. Commenters not bothering to read the article. What a surprise.

    It literally says in the summary that this demand applies to all Apple users. So the US is rightly hitting back.

    **Two US lawmakers have strongly condemned what they call the UK’s “dangerous” and “shortsighted” request to be able to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide in its cloud service.**

  2. Regardless how you feel about US politics, the move from the UK government means Apple users here are more exposed to hackers, and government snooping. It’s totally unnecessary and a massive risk.

  3. So moronic. We are going through a technological revolution, and have these people in charge who are technologically inept.

    Corporations get away with paying no tax because “they’ll leave” but they are happy to play hardball when it comes to our data.

    Such a bunch of fuckwits. Can you imagine when the UK suffers the world’s biggest data breach and everyone turns to look at Starmer. Tory mug.

  4. While our judges are interpreting the ECHR in weird and wonderful ways to go against British interests, they consistently don’t think a right to privacy is an actual thing. This is like banning locks and keys, just in case the police want to gain entry into your home.

    Our politicians apparently made a law that can compel any company operating in the UK to disable the security of their customers around the world, in case the British police can get a warrant on suspicion of a crime having taken place. This theatre though, US doesn’t actually care about that because Apple and the US government will just laugh and say no. What they care about is the UK government banning Apple from operating in the UK.

    This was the Conservatives, they are incompetent and stupid. Worse is the House of Lords, their job is to stop this kind of thing. Labour need to right this wrong.

  5. So if <pick random country> insisted that they have the right to unencrypt the data of UK residents that would ok, HMG? Because that’s what this law does.

    Stupid is the polite word.

  6. If the UK does not back down Ms Gabbard should “reevaluate US-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as US intelligence sharing”, they suggest.

    So bye bye 5 Eyes then.

  7. >Rather it would want to access it if there were a risk to national security – in other words, it would be targeting an individual, rather than using it for mass surveillance.

    Oh ye, because government agencies have never lied before, or illegally spied before. I hope apple refuse, i hope it goes tits up in the governments face, the only issue with this is people wont care until it actually affects them. Id imagine the majority of people dont even have ADP turned on (id suggest you do turn it on). But once they get here, they’l push for others and thats when the real snooping begins.

  8. The suggestion that intelligence sharing between the US and UK should come to a halt is one I would endorse. It’s hardly a threat. It’s clear that any intelligence we share now is going to end up in the hands of Putin.

  9. It’s insane. It hides criminal activity but it also hides me from criminals. 

    Thanks for making my life worse, idiots. 

  10. And they should be. The nerve for the government of our tiny little island to think we should have access to the entire world of iCloud accounts.

    Seriously, we must have some serious IQ deficits within government to think other countries would find this acceptable. Way to fuck up the relationship with the entire fucking world, dumbass Home Office cabbage brains.

  11. The only correct play by Apple was to simpliy say “no, thank you”.
    Then let the government decide if they want to make the selling and use of iPhones illegal.
    It’d never happen.

  12. Literally members of the 5 eyes spying on each others citizens

  13. I’m furious too! I don’t have a strong functionality because of the government

  14. Hypocrites, the US government tried exactly this 10 years ago and they all backed it

  15. The United Kingdom that protected the rights of people around the world (example: Hong Kong) is dead and buried.

    Now the government has nothing left to fight for they are turning on their own people. Privacy, energy security, NHS and Taxes. All fucked.

  16. The UK Government can access a users data anytime it wants already – the only difference is that with full encryption it couldn’t do it without the users knowledge.

    It’s already an offence in the UK to fail to disclose passwords to private data on request to the police under (I think) the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.

    Personallly I like the US Fourth Amendment which states that an individual has a right to be secure in their private papers (which nowadays includes electronic documents)

    A lot of people back up confidential and commercially sensitive data to Apple (and other companies) and it would be reassuring to know that the information we save cannot be read by malicious actors (and state actors without the users knowledge).

  17. The US and their snooping NSA and their no protections of personal data?

    They can shut up.

    The UK Government is entirely wrong about this, but the US government has no leg to stand on.

  18. Im pretty sure US politicians are angry *all of the time.*

  20. While the government technically needs a warrant, that offers scant protection. The opaque laws around hate speech and terrorism in this country mean it doesn’t take much effort to get one, and the judiciary is more than happy to assist.

    I’d also imagine you wouldn’t even be informed if your data was accessed unless further action is followed. This would likely be covered up under the increasingly common excuse of “not informing to avoid prejudicing court proceedings.”

    Any bad actor with half an ounce of sense will already have their data encrypted, making the need for Apple to allow government snooping easier highly questionable.

    The final concern? Who trusts any politician of any party to handle this responsibly?

  21. From what I understand, Apple will stop offering a service that requires the user to actually opt for it. If you want to keep your data secure you can still use other services. By default Apple holds all the encryption keys, this only affects a special service that allows users to bring their own keys.

  22. Looks like it’s time to start looking into private hosting of cloud data. r/hosting

  23. Honestly quite right. What are this lot thinking? “Oh it’s to protect the children” yeah? I’m pretty sure everyone is actually in MORE danger after this move

  24. Dont agree with what the UK are doing at all, but its abit ironic of the US to take the high ground when the NSA do plenty of snooping of their own

  25. It’s UK govt, they are as soft as soft shite, just tell them No, what are they going to do? Scowl at Apple.

  26. I really do hope Apple will show them the middle finger. Otherwise this would be a really bad precedent that could be used by others which would ultimately lead to complete and total surveillance of the masses. Even though the UK only wants to have access to individual accounts, it would still mean a backdoor which could be hacked by others.

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