Apple's Privacy Officer Jane Horvath Uses CES Appearance to Defend Company Stance on Encryption and Software Backdoors

Apple's chief privacy officer attended a discussion panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday to debate the state of consumer privacy, marking the first time in 28 years that Apple has been at CES in an official capacity.

apple ces 2020

Apple's privacy officer at CES 2020 panel (Image: Parker Ortolani)

Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director for global privacy, joined an all-female panel consisting of representatives from Facebook, Procter & Gamble and the Federal Trade Commission. During the discussion, Horvath defended Apple's use of encryption to protect customer data on mobile devices.

"Our phones are relatively small and they get lost and stolen," Horvath said. "If we're going to be able to rely on our health data and finance data on our devices, we need to make sure that if you misplace that device, you're not losing your sensitive data."

Apple has held a consistent position regarding its use of encryption, even if that means it has limited ability to help law enforcement access data on devices involved in criminal investigations.

Just this week, the FBI asked Apple to help unlock two iPhones that investigators believe were owned by Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who carried out a mass shooting at a Naval Air Station in Florida last month. Apple said that it had already given the FBI all of the data in its possession.

Apple's response suggests it will maintain the same stance it took in 2016, when the FBI demanded that Apple provide a so-called "backdoor" into iPhones, following the December 2015 shooter incidents in San Bernardino. Apple refused, and the FBI eventually backed down after it found an alternate way to access the data on the iPhone.

Horvath took the same tack by saying that Apple has a team working around the clock to respond to requests from law enforcement, but that building backdoors into software to give law enforcement access to private data is something she doesn't support.

"Building backdoors into encryption is not the way we are going to solve those issues," Horvath said.

Horvath went on to talk up Apple's "privacy by design" technologies like differential privacy, user randomization in native apps and services, the on-device facial recognition in the Photos app, and minimal data retrieval for Siri. Horvath also confirmed that Apple scans for child sexual abuse content uploaded to iCloud. "We are utilizing some technologies to help screen for child sexual abuse material," she said.

Horvath became Apple's chief privacy officer in September 2011. Prior to her work at Apple, Horvath was global privacy counsel at Google and chief privacy counsel at the Department of Justice.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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.

Popular Stories

oppo find n5 fingers

World's Thinnest Foldable Phone Launches Next Week

Monday February 10, 2025 3:05 am PST by
Oppo has confirmed a February 20 global launch for its Find N5, which the company claims is the world's thinnest device in the foldable phone category. The phone is expected to be re-branded as the OnePlus Open 2 in the US. The Chinese vendor has been teasing the device in the last few weeks, touting its waterproofing and nearly invisible display crease, and highlighting its thinness by compa...
2007 iPhone

Apple Discontinuing This 18-Year-Old iPhone Feature

Saturday February 8, 2025 3:51 pm PST by
The end of an 18-year era is on the horizon for the iPhone. Apple reportedly plans to announce a new iPhone SE as soon as next week, and the device is expected to feature a full-screen design with Face ID, instead of a Touch ID home button. That means Apple will no longer sell any new iPhone models with a home button, for the first time since the original iPhone launched. The home button...
m2 macbook air blue

M4 MacBook Air Release Continues to Appear Imminent

Monday February 10, 2025 10:56 am PST by
There continue to be signs of a new MacBook Air with an M4 chip, indicating that we could see the machine launch in the not too distant future. A private account on X today shared the identifiers that the MacBook Air will use, and those identifiers correspond to the M4 chip. According to the source, both the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Air will be equipped with Apple's...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.3.1

Monday February 10, 2025 10:04 am PST by
Apple today released watchOS 11.3.1, a minor update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.3.1 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.3.1 can be downloaded by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to...
sequoia

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.3.1

Monday February 10, 2025 10:11 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, a minor update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that came out last September. macOS 15.3.1 comes a few weeks after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. Apple has also released macOS 13.7.4 and macOS 14.7.4 for those who are...
iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

'New' iPhone SE Product Listing Appears on French Website

Wednesday February 12, 2025 6:49 am PST by
As the wait continues for Apple's long-rumored, fourth-generation iPhone SE, French electronics retailer Boulanger has prematurely published a product listing for a "new" model of the iPhone SE. The placeholder page says the device is "coming soon," but it offers no further information, and the price shown is obviously not real. The listing was spotted by a reader of the French technology...
Powerbeats Pro 2 Orange

Powerbeats Pro 2 Given to Customer Early, Expected to Debut Tomorrow

Monday February 10, 2025 7:42 am PST by
Apple's long-awaited Powerbeats Pro 2 are finally expected to be announced this Tuesday. Ahead of time, one lucky Walmart customer was able to get their hands on the earbuds early, according to a since-deleted Reddit post over the weekend. A leaked image of the Powerbeats Pro 2 in Electric Orange "My local Walmart had them in the cage," the Reddit user explained. "I asked if I can buy them...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.3.1 With Bug Fixes

Monday February 10, 2025 10:09 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1, minor updates for the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that came out last September. iOS 18.3.1 comes two weeks after Apple released iOS 18.3. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iPadOS 17.7.5 for those still running...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple

Apple Increases Mac Trade-In Values for a Limited Time

Sunday February 9, 2025 3:53 pm PST by
Apple today increased its estimated trade-in values for select Mac models in the United States, with the full changes outlined below. Apple says the extra trade-in credit for select Macs is available with the purchase of an eligible new Apple device through April 2. The trade-in values increased by between $10 and $50. Model New Value Old Value MacBook Pro Up to $925 ...

Top Rated Comments

DoctorTech Avatar
67 months ago
To every politician who "demands" a backdoor into electronic devices, I want to know who will go to jail when (not if) that backdoor is hacked by a criminal or misused by a government. I really don't care how "noble" your intentions are, if backdoors are built into electronic devices they WILL be abused and misused and if history teaches us anything, it is that NOBODY will be held responsible for the damage caused. To paraphrase PJ O'Rourke, installing a backdoor for the government is "like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenage boy, no matter how much they beg, no matter how much they promise they will be careful, don't do it."
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
67 months ago
In spite of some frustrations with the Apple ecosystem, their privacy positions are why I will never go anywhere else for the foreseeable future. Privacy is one of the defining issues of our time, and all of Apple’s other other good stuff is gravy.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BigBoy2018 Avatar
67 months ago
Having a secure phone is very important imo.

But, as has been said before, if you really care about privacy, quit sharing every damn stupid detail of your life on facebook etc.

People want all sorts of attention these days, as long as it's good.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sasparilla Avatar
67 months ago
Nice to see. The Government (investigative / hacking side) consistently tries to use cherry picked cases to get their back door's put into our smartphones. As we have seen previously with NSA zero day details (unofficial back doors), these have gotten leaked or hacked and put in the wild....there is no secure back door.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
67 months ago

Curious how Apple's "stance" doesn't apply in other countries like China. I guess it's not profitable to use privacy protection as a marketing tool there like it is here in the USA.
As expected. Apple has to follow the laws of the country they sell into. China has no privacy laws, no child protection laws, etc. If Apple is going to be allowed to sell into China they need to follow China's laws. Period.

Just don't corrupt the devices to be sold into the US so the the same device is sold in both countries.

Now if China's laws are not what they should be, then the people of China need to rise up and change them. It is not the responsibility of American's to attempt to change China's or any other country's laws.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
67 months ago

Protecting our privacy at the cost of innovation

I'm VERY worried Apple is slowly going to become like BlackBerry did/has in terms of privacy and security, as they clinged onto that mythos so much innovation and progression to better products/services crawled to a halt!
Complaining that Apple doesn’t innovate is getting as worn around here as emoji and it-wrong jokes. Someone needs to explain to me how Apple is glaringly behind other smartphone manufacturers. And don’t bother with microSD or bezels; if that’s how y’all define innovation, and not A-series SOCs, W/H BT chips, FaceID, iPhone 11 Pro camera system (all with glowing reviews by impartial experts), etc. etc. etc., then I suggest you raise your bar. In this age, Apple’s privacy posture alone has been innovative. Want bending displays instead? LMAO!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)