Apple is openly defying US security orders, but in China it takes a very different approach

Daily Mail ^

[Carismar]

Apple’s response to US and UK government demands for backdoors to user data has been direct, bordering on defiant. Yesterday (Feb. 16), Apple CEO Tim Cook published a letter explaining the company’s refusal to comply with a US federal court order to help the FBI access data on a phone recovered from one of the attackers in the San Bernardino, California shootings. Apple appears to take a different tack in dealing with data security demands from China, a key growth market for the company. In January 2015, the state-run newspaper People’s Daily claimed, in a tweet, that Apple had agreed to security checks by the Chinese government. This followed a piece in the Beijing News (link in Chinese) that claimed Apple acceded to audits after a meeting between Cook and China’s top internet official, Lu Wei. China’s State Internet Information Office would reportedly be allowed to perform “security checks” on all Apple products sold on the mainland. According to the report, this was despite Cook’s assurances that the devices didn’t contain backdoors accessible by any government, including the US.

[Carismar]

Apple possibly employs a double standard by allowing only China access to the backdoor key. In the case of every other country they said they won't, but have avoided making that assurance in the case of China. It opens up the intriguing possibility that China is able to use Apple devices to quietly spy on their own people and other countries. Maybe Apple has gained market access with devious means?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Has the Apple kowtow been confirmed?

[fulltlt]

My take on this whole thing is can the government force you to create something you don’t want to create that goes against your will. Kind of like forcing someone to speak when questioned. Jesus was silent when questioned by the authorities.

[DesertRhino]

Wow, breaking news. You are saying a company had to behave differently in a communist dictatorship than they do in America?

What’s your point? That red China should set policy for how companies must act here?

[baltimorepoet]

China at least, is supposed to be a police state. Not the US.

[Carismar]

“If guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns”

[Carismar]

I’m just saying, we should know if Apple gave the golden key to China.

[imardmd1]

Simple, bud. Constitutional protection that make us different from China. And makes living here tolerable. No right to "privacy" there. Big Brother watching you, everywhere, Little Brothers also.

In business, you weave cotton, sell it to Indians for opium, sell that to Chinese for tea, sell tea to English for cotton goods to take to India. With profit on every leg. What's the problem?

[Cyman]

I could never understand the APPLE Teflon coating and how it is maintained by the msm. If you wrote a profile of the company and put in the words EXXON or SHELL they would be burning down their facilities everywhere in the world

[Carismar]

But where do you draw the line?

[imardmd1]

We have an agreement. I don’t make or sell iPhones and Apple doesn’t tell me how to use one.

[DUMBGRUNT]

I would not want to cross swords with a Swordmaker!

But I would like to hear your take on this article.

[Boogieman]

So if you were searched without a warrant in China, then returned to the US, would you not be able to object if the US authorities also tried to search you without a warrant?

[Boogieman]

It’s very easy to maintain public sympathy when the public loves your products.

[Carismar]

I don’t get your point.

[cymbeline]

Here’s how to solve Apple’s encryption dilemma:

Make encryption an app that numerous independent companies can provide. Each manufacturer can do encryption as it pleases. Each manufacturer can decide on a backdoor strategy. All Apple does is provide a single interface that all of the apps use. You could write your own app.

Would the government try to make backdoor rules applicable to all of the app manufacturers? Maybe, but I think black-market apps would appear. The government could never track all of them down. Once an app was installed on an iPhone, there would be nothing in it that would identify the producer of the app.

[Carismar]

Apple thinks they should sell in China. China won’t go for it.

[driftdiver]

Every cell phone maker tells you how to use it. What you can install on it. Heck they even complied with Obamas requirement for the Presidential Alert.

[minnesota_bound]

Swordmaker is Steve Jobs. He was cloned before the original passed on.
He just does not have the money. Darn that Steve Jobs!

[imardmd1]

You miss my point. Yes, they give operational instructions, but they do not tell me what to say, or prevent me from using it to explode an I. E. D.