Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Changes to iCloud Put Apple on Collision Course With Governments Seeking Access to Encrypted Messages
Apple has sent its top privacy executives to Australia twice in the past month to lobby government officials over proposed new laws that would require companies to provide access to encrypted messages.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Apple privacy advocates met with attorney general George Brandis and senior staff in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's office on Tuesday to discuss their concerns about the legal changes, which could compel tech companies to provide decryption keys to allow access to secure communications such as that provided by WhatsApp and iMessage.
Apple has consistently argued against laws that would require tech companies to build so-called "back doors" into their software, claiming that such a move would weaken security for everyone and simply make terrorists and criminals turn to open-source encryption methods for their digital communications.
While Apple's position is clear, the Turnbull government has yet to clarify exactly what it expects tech companies to give up as part of the proposals. A source familiar with the discussions said that the government explicitly said it did not want a back door into people's phones, nor to weaken encryption.
However, given that encrypted services like WhatsApp and iMessage do not possess private keys that would enable them to decrypt messages, a back door would seem the only alternative. "If the government laid a subpoena to get iMessages, we can't provide it," CEO Tim Cook said in 2014. "It's encrypted and we don't have a key."
As it happens, Cook's comment only applies to iMessages that aren't backed up to the cloud: Apple doesn't have access to messages sent between devices because they're end-to-end encrypted, but if iCloud Backup is enabled those messages are encrypted on Apple's servers using an encryption key that the company has access to and could potentially provide to authorities.
However, Apple is moving in the same direction as WhatsApp and Telegram to make encryption keys entirely private. As announced at WWDC in June, macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 will synchronize iMessages across devices signed into the same account using iCloud and a new encryption method that ensures the keys stay out of Apple's hands.
As senior VP of software Craig Federighi noted in interview with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, even if users store information in the cloud, "it's encrypted with keys that Apple doesn't have. And so they can put things in the cloud, they can pull stuff down from the cloud, so the cloud still serves as a conduit — and even ultimately a kind of a backup for them — but only they can read it."
How this will play out in Apple's discussions with the Australian government – and indeed other governments in the "Five Eyes" intelligence sharing network seeking similar access to encrypted communications – is anything but clear. According to sources, Apple and the Turnbull government are taking a collaborative approach in the discussions, but previous statements by officials imply a tougher stance behind the scenes.
Last week, Senator Brandis said the Australian government would work with companies such as Apple to facilitate greater access to secure communications, but warned that "we'll also ensure that the appropriate legal powers, if need be, as a last resort, coercive powers of the kind that recently were introduced into the United Kingdom under the Investigatory Powers Act... are available to Australian intelligence and law enforcement authorities as well".
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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25 months ago
It really is an amazing state of affairs when it comes down to corporations like Apple to actually protect the rights of citizens, whilst the governments we elect are trying to undo those rights.
25 months ago
Governments: Decrypt all the messages! It will stop terrorists!
Companies: OK here you go
Terrorists: lol we'll just use something else then..
General public: So we've just lost our right to privacy for nothing? o_O And you're going to give this access to every single future government as well, including the untrustworthy ones? Jesus H. Christ, who's the bigger threat again??
Companies: OK here you go
Terrorists: lol we'll just use something else then..
General public: So we've just lost our right to privacy for nothing? o_O And you're going to give this access to every single future government as well, including the untrustworthy ones? Jesus H. Christ, who's the bigger threat again??
25 months ago
Only thinking of their own good huh. "Add in a back door, but only for us!" yeah that's not how it works Skippy. You don't have an Australian iOS and an US iOS and a rest-of-the-world iOS. It's one OS and if you build in back doors for one person everybody will have access to it. Bad guys and bad guys. End of story.
25 months ago
Apple is doing Good here. Having all the access in the world is not going to make us any safer
25 months ago
It really is an amazing state of affairs when it comes down to corporations like Apple to actually protect the rights of citizens, whilst the governments we elect are trying to undo those rights.
As a kid raised in the 70s when good and evil used to be clear-cut, I place Apple firmly in the Good camp. Especially under the Cook tenure.
25 months ago
Back to Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
25 months ago
I really hope Apple and their contemporaries refuse to alter their encryption in Australia. Encrypted messages need to stay that way without compromise. It would send a stronger message to disable iMessage, WhatsApp and so on entirely in Australia and have their people vote out these government ministers than it would to alter the safety of their messaging platform.
With so many people using iPhones and Australias compelled voting system it could result in ministers losing their seats over a phone, stranger things have happened.
With so many people using iPhones and Australias compelled voting system it could result in ministers losing their seats over a phone, stranger things have happened.
25 months ago
I consider the USA, UK and Australia as one (cronies), at least the EU has the balls to make new laws concerning people's right to encryption and no built in backdoors.
25 months ago
Jesus..... GCHQ have stated Russian backed hackers accessed the UKs electricity utility companies, and people are crying about security services accessing their worthless messages..
Sorry, but I'm in full support of the government.
These two things have very little in common. The only parallel is that an intentional back door is likely to increase chances of being hacked.
Creating a back door will in no way stop russian backed hackers accessing our infrastructure!
25 months ago
Jesus..... GCHQ have stated Russian backed hackers accessed the UKs electricity utility companies, and people are crying about security services accessing their worthless messages..
Sorry, but I'm in full support of the government.
"Here's this completely separate discussion that I'm going to use to support my argument in favour of the removal of encrypted messaging."
How do you survive making logical leaps like that?
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