The Washington Post reports that the UK government is demanding Apple provide them backdoor access to users encrypted iCloud data.
This is nothing particularly new for government. The FBI has been famously turned down by Apple when it came to their demands for decrypting lock codes of alleged criminals iPhones.
What is disturbing is that the UK is making this demand under cover of its “Investigatory Powers Act“. This sneaky, slimy, law makes it a criminal offense for the company under demand to say anything about being under notice, demand, or request.
So the UK government knows that they’re doing something shady, and they want to do it in complete darkness.
They do allow an appeal to a secret panel and judge. In other words the appeal process is just for show.
This demand for a back door doesn’t just apply to British citizens, the UK government wants the ability to spy, snoop, violate privacy, of anyone in the world who is using Apple iCloud.
Their justification is, as it always is with totalitarians, that they need this access to insure public safety and they can be trusted not to abuse this ability.
We can bet that they’re making, or have already made similar demands of all other encrypted cloud services. But we will never know if that’s true, and we can never know who complied, because of the double super secret provisions of “Investigatory Powers Act“.
So the continuous assault on Personal Privacy goes on. This is important because in the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is sort of a central piece. It’s so central to Apple device functionality that Apple gives everyone a little iCloud storage space when they buy their first iPhone. At that low level, it’s mostly about iPhone backups and settings.
Most people increase the amount of iCloud storage available because if you have several devices it’s convenient to have access to your all of your data from every device.
Do you want someone, without your permission, looking at your backup data? How about documents, text messages, photos, movies, or literally anything you’ve stored in the cloud?
I don’t. I could live without iCloud. In fact I could live quite nicely with local storage and not have anything in the cloud. But that’s just me.
A lot of people can’t.
Most people, due to Apple’s marketing of User Privacy being one of Apple’s top concerns, have a reasonable expectation that their data will be encrypted and that no-one including Apple can access that data.
If Apple gives the UK backdoor access. Then privacy is gone. China will next be demanding their own access to user data, then it’ll be Interpol. All the while the US government will be quietly taking data dumps from “Five Eyes” member nations. Using that data to spy on its own citizens but being able to deny that they are. Our intelligence agencies will shrug their shoulders and say they can’t control what information is shared with them in a data dump from other intelligence agencies.
The UK government has become the ultimate representation of a “KAREN” and their surveillance and free speech, or rather, their definition of hate speech, policies are the biggest reasons that I have no desire to visit.
You know what? I’m good with that too.
Even if Apple were to turn off encryption for all phones operating, or purchased in the UK, it still wouldn’t meet the requirements set forth in the “Investigatory Powers Act”.
I’m fine with the UK, UKing all over their own people. Their people apparently like this stuff.
I draw the line at them potentially expanding their bullshit beyond their little islands. I’m not impressed or interested in helping the UK assuage its feelings of inadequacy by invading my privacy. In fact, to the best of my knowledge I don’t have contact with any UK citizen or business. I believe that is true for at least the past 20 years. So why would they have any remote need to access my encrypted iCloud data?
The iCloud data they want backdoor access to may include heath data (from my watch), location data from all my devices, frequented location data, digital ID, private journal data, financial data, and via my contacts application, all my business associates and / or friends.
But what they’re really interested in are my mean tweets, or off color Facebook posts, they want to know if I’m twerking on tictok, or have appeared in blackface on instagram. (After all I’m not Justin Trudeau)
Remember, authorities in the UK have repeatedly, and quite boldly, said they’ll come for Americans on American soil if we speak poorly of their muslim invaders, their shitty leaders, or their insane transsexual, transvestites, from Transylvania, on social media.
Like all “KARENS” the UK government seeks totalitarian control over everything and everyone. They want a Utopia. There’s only one catch.
Utopia requires a mechanistic homogeneity of thought, and pesky humanity is renown for individuals that refuse to comply.
Which leaves totalitarian Utopias only one viable option. Their elites must be content to rule over a graveyard.
I personally think there can be no Utopia without it being a totalitarian state. But I’m nobody of interest.
I’m hoping that since this has been exposed and is appearing in news reports in main stream media that the idiot “KARENS” in the UK will back down. They probably will, for at least 9 months to a year.
When they think the average Joe isn’t paying attention they’ll issue another slimy “technical capability notice” and this time, they’ll make sure they gag anyone who might blow the whistle.
The UK is trying out the George Orwell path right now. They’ll move on to the mass graves anytime, and then finally will have the Utopia they’ve always wanted.
We’ll have to see what Apple does. I think perhaps it’s time to reconsider using any cloud storage media for anything.
Why make it easy for some bored fucker with nothing better to do, issue you tickets or screw your social credit score because you, at one time, 20 years ago said the “N” word, or called a bunch of Iraqis “Sand N****rs”.
I admit I think it would be interesting for the Metropolitan Police of London to show up at someone’s door here in the US to attempt to arrest them for a mean tweet.
I’m honestly not sure if that would result in body bags draped with the British flag, or that we’d find our law enforcement folks are willing to violate the US Constitution, specifically the First Amendment.
Given some of the videos of the Metropolitan Police asking nicely to enter someone’s home to arrest them of a violation of their morality and speech codes, and the potential arrestee hanging out the window saying “No! Bugger off, you gits!”
I think the Metropolitan Police would be quite shocked at the way Americans handle such things.
British people are way more polite than we are.
Might be worth having some popcorn ready for that show.