
Why did Apple help police shutdown KAT, but not a terrorist? - samfisher83
Apparently Apple gave up information that helped to the capture of Artem Vaulin, the guy behind KAT. However apple put up big stink about helping decrypt a phone. Given KAT hurts iTunes it gave apple a much larger incentive to help the cops, but it seems quite hypocritical of Apple.
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clinton_sf
Thought experiment: let's say that Apple doesn't know what the suspect in a
law enforcement investigation is suspected of. If the request is between
revealing the identity of a user from a particular IP address (which is
probably easy for them to determine), or giving away (essentially) a master
key to decrypt all iPhones, which would it comply with? I think it would have
complied with revealing the identity of a user pretty much every time, even if
the suspect was a terrorist, but not necessarily to give away the master key
for all iPhones even if the suspect was an intellectual property pirate.

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kup0
Because the two requests are fundamentally different. As far as I am aware,
other than helping decrypt the phone, I believe Apple did handover any other
information they had on the terrorist.[0]

I believe when it came to decrypting a phone, that is a line they decided they
could not cross because of what it would require. I believe, had Artem had an
encrypted phone and Apple were asked to decrypt it they would refuse again.
It's about what is being asked of them, not about the severity of the crime or
situation.

So it is only hypocritical if they help decrypt Artem's phone and not the
terrorist's phone and only if Artem's phone requires the same level of work to
decrypt. Additionally, the factor of iTunes being affected by the crime having
any effect on their willingness to assist law enforcement is pure speculation

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[0] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/apple-we-tried-
to...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/apple-we-tried-to-help-fbi-
terror-probe-but-someone-changed-icloud-password/)

"After days of working with the FBI, Apple proposed one final attempt to
recover roughly six weeks of data that was locked on the phone." / "With a
legal court order, Apple can and does turn over iCloud data."

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mtgx
It probably is, but iTunes data is not encrypted by the user. So if it is
encrypted at all, Apple can decrypt it, and it can and will give that data to
the police, as it has in the past as well.

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blackflame7000
Its disappointing as it shows that their ethics and bottom-line are to some
degree intertwined

