UK's Secret War on Privacy
Apple Refuses UK Backdoor Demands
Apple Says No to Government Backdoor
As the UK increases its heavy hand on your digital life, it is secretly demanding Apple put in a backdoor to its end to end encrypted features including chat. To Apple's credit they publicly refused to add a backdoor and will have to disable end to end encryption for UK iPhone users.
Under UK’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016 the British government claims they can force Apple into putting in the backdoor. Apple's encrypted features only allows the user to access their device’s encrypted information stored on iCloud, not even Apple can access it. I am going to revisit Apple's security stance and write a detailed Substack about my findings. I recently bought an iPhone for testing purposes so I will put it to good use.
UK's secret Apple iCloud backdoor order is a global emergency, say critics | TechCrunch
The threat to global private communications is no longer in the hallway shadows in lawmaker buildings and data hungry tech companies but in plain sight.
Elon Musk says in the USA, under President Trump, this could never happen but the US has not convinced me otherwise.
Rebecca Vincent, who heads Big Brother Watch, warned that the UK government’s “draconian” order would not make citizens safer but would instead “erode the fundamental rights and civil liberties of the entire population.”
Why do we need secure communications anyways?
The US government already claimed that texting is no longer safe as the Chinese Government can read all your text messages. The UK government’s backdoors also will allow any hostile government access to your communications anytime.
US security authorities have stated on public record that Americans should use encrypted messaging apps to avoid having their communications intercepted by adversarial nations after they revealed the hacking campaign by the Chinese government.
What the !@#$%^ !
In the UK, no secrets allowed as private conversations are basically illegal.
In the US, the government claims the Chinese can read any text message sent.
If you need to have digital private conversations with family, friends, co-workers, and business partners you better start using a trusted open source chat app. But what app can you trust these days?
A walk in the woods without a phone seems more like an option when I need to pour my heart out or have a serious conversation.
“The lesson will be repeated until it is learned: there is no backdoor that only lets in good guys and keeps out bad guys,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It’s time for all of us to recognize this, and take steps to ensure real security and privacy for all of us.”
Offline living in the real world is more attractive everyday. Thanks, Will.