It's a backdoor. A rose by any other name is just as thorny. I'm sorry that it upsets you. If it's any consolation, I consider Google and Meta's complicity equ

It's a backdoor. A rose by any other name is just as thorny. I'm sorry that it upsets you. If it's any consolation, I consider Google and Meta's complicity equally disgusting. But I consider it disgusting because they are doing the same thing Apple does; hiding the existence of interception and privacy-degrading functionality that benefits the government. The pedigree that Apple once garnered through publicity stunts like San Bernadino has been entirely negated in posterity. The federal government has a much closer relationship with Apple than any customer ever could; the "privacy is a human right" advertisement was always conditional on where you lived and how you're oppressed. The only way to defend customer privacy is to offer genuine freedom. As you've admit in this comment, federal coercion of a platform like iOS is like shooting fish in a barrel. iMessage, App Store, WebKit dylibs, Push Notifications, OCSP servers; none of them have any alternatives. If Apple were to lose control over the security of those products, the implications could be lethal. They could never argue that proprietary code or privately-managed security is a benefit to mankind ever again. It's no coincidence that Tim Cook greeted Kashoggi's killer last night over dinner. Welcome to the new normal, a surveillance state where Apple was priced-out of defending freedom, safety or privacy.