2 ms·

Unfortunately any time a National Security Letter comes along, whatever it asks for will get implemented and the company will be unable to communicate anything

• hellcow 5y ago
  May have happened? Given what we've learned about the NSA over the years, the news that's leaked is consistently _worse_ than expected, not better. Pessimism is warranted. This policy provides cover for the NSA's PRISM partner Apple to search and exfiltrate data on devices en masse. Apple and the NSA no longer have to do this in a targeted way to remain undetected. It's now done to everyone. Obviously this is a huge problem for privacy. If Apple doesn't reverse course despite all this backlash, it's reasonable to assume the alternative for Apple must be worse. There must be an explanation for their behavior. Apple's decision makes sense if the NSA were already doing this on devices with Apple's cooperation, and Apple feared the scope of the operation would be discovered. Then making it public "to catch child predators" seems like far less damage to their brand than appearing to buddy up with the feds. I can't think of another reason which justifies Apple stomping on their own privacy narrative.