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"Giving away Apple's encrypted cloud is just another small step toward making 1984 a reality." The big step was "Apple's cloud", i.e., people storing their dat

"Giving away Apple's encrypted cloud is just another small step toward making 1984 a reality." The big step was "Apple's cloud", i.e., people storing their data on someone else's computer^1 where the someone else is also collecting the data of millions of other people, too 1. Some HN commenters and others define "the cloud" as "someone else's computer"

Terretta 1y ago
There are various "threat models", one of them is people losing their life's digital cupboard. For that, Apple provided Time Machine, then provided the equivalent of a digital safety deposit box in somebody else's room, like a bank fault. People can break, lose, or have their phone stolen; then open a new one from the box and have their digital cupboard back. Well before Apple, the recommendation was to store a backup offsite – almost nobody did. Now many do. In response to a warrant, a bank opens that box. In response to a warrant, clouds open that box. That part of the threat model isn't new. Another threat is forgetting the key to your safety deposit box. Most people would be angry if Apple, or their bank, wouldn't let them back in the box. Apple used to be able to help. Now, unlike the bank, they offer a mode where only you have the key. It's hard to say this is a step to 1984, given that up to this point, the safety deposit box threat models were similar, just Apple's digital vault was much more likely to be have the user's latest valuables when the user needed them recovered, and when they diverge it is in user privacy favor.
socalgal2 1y ago
I have often wished all the browsers and OSes had a documented public protocal for all the stuff they sync and that you could go into them and set their endpoint. the majority of people would leave it as the default but some of us would point it to our own servers.
1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
Note to file: Was +5, maybe more

Terretta 1y ago

There are various "threat models", one of them is people losing their life's digital cupboard. For that, Apple provided Time Machine, then provided the equivalent of a digital safety deposit box in somebody else's room, like a bank fault. People can break, lose, or have their phone stolen; then open a new one from the box and have their digital cupboard back. Well before Apple, the recommendation was to store a backup offsite – almost nobody did. Now many do. In response to a warrant, a bank opens that box. In response to a warrant, clouds open that box. That part of the threat model isn't new. Another threat is forgetting the key to your safety deposit box. Most people would be angry if Apple, or their bank, wouldn't let them back in the box. Apple used to be able to help. Now, unlike the bank, they offer a mode where only you have the key. It's hard to say this is a step to 1984, given that up to this point, the safety deposit box threat models were similar, just Apple's digital vault was much more likely to be have the user's latest valuables when the user needed them recovered, and when they diverge it is in user privacy favor.

socalgal2 1y ago

I have often wished all the browsers and OSes had a documented public protocal for all the stuff they sync and that you could go into them and set their endpoint. the majority of people would leave it as the default but some of us would point it to our own servers.

1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago

Note to file: Was +5, maybe more