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The ecosystem is incredibly insecure, despite what Apple's marketing department wants you to think. More than anything I'm surprised at how often their advertis

The ecosystem is incredibly insecure, despite what Apple's marketing department wants you to think. More than anything I'm surprised at how often their advertising talking points are parroted in tech circles, like here on HN.. in any thread hinting at Google vs Apple you're bound to find a long comment chain about how Apple is "secure" and "privacy oriented" and "cares about their users". Not that Google is any better, but it makes me wonder whether it's just astroturfing or if their marketing is actually working.

Nextgrid 7y ago
It all depends on your threat model. For the average person I’m not worried about the relatively unlikely occurrence of the government accessing their backups. I’m much more worried about the more likely occurrence of local malware or ad tracking by malicious apps including from big names like Facebook & other social media companies, and in that instance Apple is still ahead as the OS restricts what apps can do a lot more than Android, the App Store is more curated against malware, etc.
- parliament32 7y ago
  Here's a threat model for you: how fucked would you be if your iCloud backups suddenly became searchable online? Ever say anything bad about your boss or company in an convo? Ever taken any photos you wouldn't want released? Ever downloaded any files you wouldn't want public? The agencies have proven time and time again that they're pretty terrible at keeping secrets (see: all the leaks, data breaches, TSA master keys, etc). As long as they have a back door, it's inevitable that it'll happen -- it's effectively a ticking time bomb. When I send a message over Signal, I can trust that it'll be kept private, barring some truly extraordinary incident. With Apple, it's kept accessible by design (storing the encryption key with the encrypted backup? really?). It's not about the government accessing my messages, because I really don't care all that much, it's that I don't trust them to keep secrets. If the government has access to something of yours you must assume it'll eventually be made public... whether or not you're okay with that is up to you.

Nextgrid 7y ago

It all depends on your threat model. For the average person I’m not worried about the relatively unlikely occurrence of the government accessing their backups. I’m much more worried about the more likely occurrence of local malware or ad tracking by malicious apps including from big names like Facebook & other social media companies, and in that instance Apple is still ahead as the OS restricts what apps can do a lot more than Android, the App Store is more curated against malware, etc.

parliament32 7y ago
Here's a threat model for you: how fucked would you be if your iCloud backups suddenly became searchable online? Ever say anything bad about your boss or company in an convo? Ever taken any photos you wouldn't want released? Ever downloaded any files you wouldn't want public? The agencies have proven time and time again that they're pretty terrible at keeping secrets (see: all the leaks, data breaches, TSA master keys, etc). As long as they have a back door, it's inevitable that it'll happen -- it's effectively a ticking time bomb. When I send a message over Signal, I can trust that it'll be kept private, barring some truly extraordinary incident. With Apple, it's kept accessible by design (storing the encryption key with the encrypted backup? really?). It's not about the government accessing my messages, because I really don't care all that much, it's that I don't trust them to keep secrets. If the government has access to something of yours you must assume it'll eventually be made public... whether or not you're okay with that is up to you.