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The substance of this comment seems to be “Adam Schiff did bad stuff (too?)”. Whataboutism isn’t particularly interesting, and I don’t think sympathy or lack th

The substance of this comment seems to be “Adam Schiff did bad stuff (too?)”. Whataboutism isn’t particularly interesting, and I don’t think sympathy or lack thereof is a useful lens for this particular topic. Did Apple do something wrong here? Did the DOJ? What can be done to prevent, or at least expose this type of behavior in the future? Edit: added a missing word and fixed quotes. As an aside, techbros clarifying comment below is exactly why I love this site.

TechBro8615 5y ago
> Did Apple do something wrong here? My (meta-)point is that the answer to this question better be the same as it is to the question of “Did ATT do something wrong?” If it’s not, then the person answering is either intellectually dishonest or a hypocrite. Personally, my answer – which is the same to both – is that if the company followed a legal process, they didn’t do something “wrong.” I don’t like the trend of relying on corporations to take moral positions. If the subpoena is legal, but ethically wrong, then the problem is with the legal process, not the company complying with it. It shouldn’t be Apple or ATT’s job to protest against a valid legal subpoena. It’s the job of congress to fix the legislation that allows for this surveillance. And btw, it’s worth noting that they aren’t trying very hard to do this. I wonder why? If a company wants to protest this system, the best thing they can do is not collect the information being subpoenaed in the first place. Take Signal for example. When they receive a subpoena, they don’t need to protest it, because they can just say they never actually had the information under subpoena. Is Apple doing something wrong by collecting information they can read with or without a subpoena? Well, that’s for you – the market – to decide. Vote with your wallet. Personally IMO Apple is the least-bad option for privacy, so long as your threat model doesn’t involve any nation-state government.
- nemosaltat 5y ago
  Thank you for clarifying! > It’s the job of congress to fix the legislation Absolutely agreed

TechBro8615 5y ago

> Did Apple do something wrong here? My (meta-)point is that the answer to this question better be the same as it is to the question of “Did ATT do something wrong?” If it’s not, then the person answering is either intellectually dishonest or a hypocrite. Personally, my answer – which is the same to both – is that if the company followed a legal process, they didn’t do something “wrong.” I don’t like the trend of relying on corporations to take moral positions. If the subpoena is legal, but ethically wrong, then the problem is with the legal process, not the company complying with it. It shouldn’t be Apple or ATT’s job to protest against a valid legal subpoena. It’s the job of congress to fix the legislation that allows for this surveillance. And btw, it’s worth noting that they aren’t trying very hard to do this. I wonder why? If a company wants to protest this system, the best thing they can do is not collect the information being subpoenaed in the first place. Take Signal for example. When they receive a subpoena, they don’t need to protest it, because they can just say they never actually had the information under subpoena. Is Apple doing something wrong by collecting information they can read with or without a subpoena? Well, that’s for you – the market – to decide. Vote with your wallet. Personally IMO Apple is the least-bad option for privacy, so long as your threat model doesn’t involve any nation-state government.

nemosaltat 5y ago
Thank you for clarifying! > It’s the job of congress to fix the legislation Absolutely agreed