> Yes they pinky promised not to collect all of your data. So will you email me your social security number if I promise not to use it?
That's dense. If you use Apple email, they also collect your social security number if someone sends it to you, and they (and the Chinese government for Chinese users) have the ability to reset your password and gain access to any service is sign up for, despite pinky promises otherwise, and Apple's software has permission to read absolutely everything you do on your phone. In just the same way, what they have the ability to do exceeds what they tell their customers they do. What the app actually collected was specified, and there remains no evidence that they did anything more than they told the panelists.
> Yes there is nothing wrong with breaching a contract....
There is certainly nothing evil about giving users what they want in spite of the whims of a capricious (and actually evil) middleman.
> That’s not how public/private key pairs work and the article said no such thing.
Apple encrypted user's iCloud emails and iCloud data in a way that Apple still has access to for search. It is Apple's keys that matter in this case, not the user's keys for communicating with Apple.
The article said exactly such thing:
"Before a switch announced in January, all encryption keys for Chinese users were stored in the U.S., which meant authorities needed to go through the U.S. legal system to request access to information. Now the situation is based on Chinese courts and a gatekeeper that’s owned by the government [emphasis added]."
There is certainly nothing evil about giving users what they want in spite of the whims of a capricious (and actually evil) middleman.
So users want to install software that can intercept all of their communications? I’ve never heard someone say, “I would give up all of my privacy and install a network sniffer/key logger on my device of someone paid me*
Apple encrypted user's iCloud emails and iCloud data in a way that Apple still has access to for search. It is Apple's keys that matter in this case, not the user's keys for communicating with Apple.
That’s also not how email works. Email is not a secure communications and is never encrypted. Besides that, you don’t need to use an Apple provided email account.
The article said exactly such thing: "Before a switch announced in January, all encryption keys for Chinese users were stored in the U.S., which meant authorities needed to go through the U.S. legal system to request access to information. Now the situation is based on Chinese courts and a gatekeeper that’s owned by the government [emphasis added]."
That’s not how public/private key encryption works - despite what you read from techcrunch. The whole purpose of a public private key pair is that you (or your device) creates the key pair, you send the public key out for anyone to use. They then use the public key to encrypt a message and you keep your private key. Anyone can encrypt a message and only you can decrypt a message with your private key. Am I really explaining how public/private key encryption works on Hacker News?
> So users want to install software that can intercept all of their communications? I’ve never heard someone say, “I would give up all of my privacy and install a network sniffer/key logger on my device of someone paid me*
I just told you that I did exactly that. If you read the reviews of the app on the Google Play Store, you will find many other users confirming that they knowingly and happily made the same deal. The Nielsen box itself contains a microphone that can hear everything in the room, and people happily sign up for the payment.
> That’s also not how email works. [Blah blah blah.]
You missed the point. The point was that Apple has the exact same access as Google from the operating system. There is a difference between what the operating system allows an app to do and what it actually does, which you have repeatedly conflated.
> That’s not how public/private key encryption works.
Now you've confused end to end encryption with public key encryption. It's a bit ridiculous that I have to explain the difference to you, but here it goes. iMessages is end to end encrypted. ICloud services like mail, drive, and docs are not. By handing over the iCloud keys to China, Apple has given the Chinese government unfettered access to this information and, by extension, all services which can be accessed using those credentials.
Now that you understand the problem, do you understand how that is evil?
In some cases, your iCloud data may be stored using third-party partners’ servers—such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform—but these partners don’t have the keys to decrypt your data stored on their servers.
If Apple is in fact lying,I’m sure a lot of government agencies would be glad to know.
That's dense. If you use Apple email, they also collect your social security number if someone sends it to you, and they (and the Chinese government for Chinese users) have the ability to reset your password and gain access to any service is sign up for, despite pinky promises otherwise, and Apple's software has permission to read absolutely everything you do on your phone. In just the same way, what they have the ability to do exceeds what they tell their customers they do. What the app actually collected was specified, and there remains no evidence that they did anything more than they told the panelists.
> Yes there is nothing wrong with breaching a contract....
There is certainly nothing evil about giving users what they want in spite of the whims of a capricious (and actually evil) middleman.
> That’s not how public/private key pairs work and the article said no such thing.
Apple encrypted user's iCloud emails and iCloud data in a way that Apple still has access to for search. It is Apple's keys that matter in this case, not the user's keys for communicating with Apple.
The article said exactly such thing: "Before a switch announced in January, all encryption keys for Chinese users were stored in the U.S., which meant authorities needed to go through the U.S. legal system to request access to information. Now the situation is based on Chinese courts and a gatekeeper that’s owned by the government [emphasis added]."