Apple - A Message to Our Customers

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https://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

Originally Posted By: Apple

February 16, 2016 A Message to Our Customers
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.

The Need for Encryption
Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.

All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.

Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.

For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.

The San Bernardino Case
We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.

When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The Threat to Data Security
Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.

In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.

We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

A Dangerous Precedent
Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

Tim Cook
 
Good for Apple. The government doesn't need to hack the phone anyway. They already have all the calls and texts.
 
What gets me here is that terrorism, in terms of American lives lost per year, is basically a non-issue next to other more easily solvable problems -- and yet here we are, hemmorhaging blood and treasure, and risking our civil rights.

We are doing all of this out of fear. We would do well to ask ourselves whether that's how we want to be.

If our concerns were actually proportionate to real dangers, we would be living in a VERY different country, and probably a different world.
 
Sounds like they are trying to cover up their own bad intentions. Apparently Apple software will cause your phone to brick if you have a 3rd party fix it...to me..this comment seems to be support for safeguarding privacy. (To me, it means more money for Apple). I think Apple should offer security features but let those who buy it decide if they use it or not. I could care less who sees what I do on my phone..they'd get very bored.
 
Now I wish I had a IPhone.

Clever at the very least, a company doing this (truthfully) that is a winner.

My Android phone is loosing whatever luster it once had, security is very important when it comes to comms.
 
B.bu..but..but... It's apple. Hipsters and California and all that stuff that's supposed to be in love with big brother and nanny state... No?
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Now I wish I had a IPhone.

Clever at the very least, a company doing this (truthfully) that is a winner.

My Android phone is loosing whatever luster it once had, security is very important when it comes to comms.


Based upon advertising profiles, I can see how Google is reading my wife's emails. So many blindly swooned over Google because it wasn't apple.
 
Apple isn't standing for any rights, it is simply a question of money: they'd have to develop and transfer tools to the Gov. A cheap PR shot for the gullible ones when their revenue is down. AFAIK, no phone (unless properly equipped) is secure. Blackberry is still forbidden in many countries due to its elevated security. As far as right go, Apple has been kissing Chicom bottom for the same reasons for ages.
 
Funny that they choose to make their stand on civil liberties defending a pair of mass-murdering Muslim terrorists.

And also funny that they don't bother to mention that the phone in question is actually the property of the employer of one of said mass murdering Muslim terrorists, AND has consented to give the FBI access to all information contained in the device.
 
Originally Posted By: BubbaFL
Funny that they choose to make their stand on civil liberties defending a pair of mass-murdering Muslim terrorists.

And also funny that they don't bother to mention that the phone in question is actually the property of the employer of one of said mass murdering Muslim terrorists, AND has consented to give the FBI access to all information contained in the device.


I think the issue is that they created an encrypted system that cannot be opened by any secondary or backdoor key. If the pin is unknown, there is no way in.

Apple is unwilling to create a backdoor that could be compromised any number of ways.
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
If there is a backdoor, there is no security. An easy concept to grasp.


If a backdoor can be created as easily as is claimed, there is no security.

The only question is who will create it, and whether Apple's intellectual property rights be forcibly abrogated in the process (I assume the reverse engineering requested by the FBI would be in violation of Apple's licensing arrangements).
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Originally Posted By: BubbaFL
Funny that they choose to make their stand on civil liberties defending a pair of mass-murdering Muslim terrorists.

And also funny that they don't bother to mention that the phone in question is actually the property of the employer of one of said mass murdering Muslim terrorists, AND has consented to give the FBI access to all information contained in the device.


I think the issue is that they created an encrypted system that cannot be opened by any secondary or backdoor key. If the pin is unknown, there is no way in.

Apple is unwilling to create a backdoor that could be compromised any number of ways.

Yes. The phone is encrypted and they want a backdoor to get around it. Essentially making it useless because we all know how well they keep track of information like that, if it doesn't get discovered by a third-party first.
This would open up everyone with a iphone to having their data accessed.
I think we can all agree that the person who committed these attacks has no rights to his phone or data on it, but if he won't cough up the PIN Im afraid they are SOL.
And reading some of the responses make me sick. "I don't care, Im doing nothing wrong." Im going to throw up.
 
Originally Posted By: BubbaFL
Originally Posted By: hatt
If there is a backdoor, there is no security. An easy concept to grasp.


If a backdoor can be created as easily as is claimed, there is no security.

The only question is who will create it, and whether Apple's intellectual property rights be forcibly abrogated in the process (I assume the reverse engineering requested by the FBI would be in violation of Apple's licensing arrangements).
If .gov could have created it themselves they would have messed with Apple.
 
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