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But Apple only abides when it has to: 1. USA: Apple denies access to the FBI on known/convicted terrorist's phone, iCloud. China: Apple moves entire iCloud ope

But Apple only abides when it has to: 1. USA: Apple denies access to the FBI on known/convicted terrorist's phone, iCloud. China: Apple moves entire iCloud operation over to a government cloud, with no privacy guarantees. 2. USA: Apple blocks app stores within third party apps. China: WeChat/govt. threaten Apple with censure, to which Apple succumbs allowing "apps" on WeChat-china. 3. Apple sure as heck won't approve/deny apps based on government input, but they damn well will remove Taiwan emojis, Hong Kong protestors apps, etc at China's behest. So no - Apple only punches down, never up. They aren't complying with local law, they are routinely violating their own moral grandstanding on privacy, freedom, tracking, ...

1996 7y ago
Your analysis is correct, just missing one thing: apple can pretend to refuse the domestic government requests. It is good for their reputation and profits. But given what they do abroad, I have no reason to believe they don't do the same at home. If they don't, a secret court order with a gag clause and jail term for those who refuse to comply will make them obey. Neither apple nor the government has any interest in this public display of force. Plausible deniability again: make people believe apple stand for their right, even if you don't get stuff to pin down a know bad guy or two - doesn't matter if you still have plenty on them or if they're dead