

Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police - IBM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2014/09/17/2612af58-3ed2-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html

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xnull2guest
We're seeing quite a lot of these sorts of headlines across different
companies.

It's important to keep in mind that:

\- It was not necessary for Apple to unlock devices for the NSA.

\- Police use Stingray devices and taps at phone towers to track you based on
your location, which is out of Apple's jurisdiction.

\- Backdoor-equivalent features that are running on all modern iOS devices
which do not require Apple specialists to activate were found and were
disclosed at Blackhat this year.

\- Police have access to forensic kits that give them access to devices
without working with manufacturers.

\- Backdoors are created in commercial products through ABBA, ORCHESTRA, and
other programs and so often are not known by the company.

\- Other tech companies have a history of misleading their customers about the
access police and government have to their products (Skype, Blackberry,
Microsoft OneDrive/Sharepoint).

\- There is legal precedent which forces you to unlock your devices and hand
over encryption keys in the case of an investigation.

\- Physical access (think geohot's original iPhone root) always means device
ownership. Always.

\- Much of the data on your iDevice is automatically synced to the cloud
(think recent celebrity nude leaks). Your device often does not need to be
unlocked in this case.

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declan
Discussion thread for the actual Apple policy is here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8333595](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8333595)

