UK Effort to Keep Apple Encryption Fight Secret Is Blocked

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https://assets.msn.com/content/view/v2/Detail/en-in/AA1CsokD

NB. It wasn't Apple who moved to block the secrecy of the hearing. Apple seems content to let UK Apple computer owners mistakenly believe they can trust the company's promises of "privacy". Meanwhile the company was participating in secret hearings with the government concerning computer owners' data.

"The ADP service is opt-in, meaning people have to sign up to get the protection it provides."

Defaults matter. They are intentional. They are chosen by so-called "tech" companies like Apple that interlope as alleged "necessary" intermediaries: "Send us your data and we will store it in our data centres."

Apple's default is "no end-to-end encryption". ADP off.

The judgment referenced in the submission is only the "public" one, a summary. Apple will not publish the "private" one.

The data at issue is not Apple's. But the data owners are absent from these hearings. Their only knowledge of how the "data custodian" Apple advocates, negotiates and capitulates on their behalf comes from vague publicity and the custodian itself.

> Apple seems content to let UK Apple computer owners mistakenly believe they can trust the company's promises of "privacy"

Not as far as I see. To me, Apple have been very clear that their "normal" protection can be accessed by governments, and they have withdrawn ADP completely from the UK (users not already using it: now. users still using it: at some time in future) - to let its UK customers know they have no expectation of privacy from their government.

Apple can't stop the government demanding the removal of user privacy. But it can, and did, let all its users know this is happening.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj54eq4vejo

> Data with standard encryption is accessible by Apple and shareable with law enforcement, if they have a warrant.

> In a statement Apple said it was "gravely disappointed" that the security feature would no longer be available to British customers. "As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will," it continued.

> Existing users' access will be disabled at a later date.