Bullpucky, Cold Heat. Is it your contention that anyone, especially the Chinese, has broken 256 bit or 512 bit encryption or have been handed the keys?! Or have the computing power to spend the time breaking such sophisticated encryption for trivial data? Cold Heat, the Chinese government already HAS full dossiers on its citizens. Besides, using the Cloud is still optional. A user does not have to use it unless he wants to. . . and when he does, his data is heavily encrypted by the user's device as well, so that it becomes doubly encrypted in storage.
You said you were not on top of these thing, you don't use smartphones, and assorted other things that show you really don't keep up on the state of the art. I do. It's my business to do so. Yet you call me "useless?" I'm the one posting links to factual, checkable facts. You aren't.
The actual fact is that the NSA and other government agencies get their data by tapping into the data stream before and after it leaves the server farms, the ISPs, towers, etc., or by surreptitiously intercepting devices from the possession of a target individual or group of individuals and altering them. Apple's encryption cannot even be decrypted by Apple to access the data without the users' keys. . .
"Apple also said in the letter that it collects Wi-Fi and GPS information when the phone is searching for a cellular connection. Apple said the data it transmits about location aren't associated with a unique device identifier. . . the company wrote in the July (2013) letter to Congress.
and, Cold Heat, forensic data examiners in examining the data streams being sent from iOS devices have proved that IOS does not transmit location data with any ID signifiers to any servers. Apple told the truth.
In the article at hand, Apple is quoted:
"Apple has frequently come under fire from Chinese state media, which accused the company of providing user data to U.S. intelligence agencies and have called for 'severe punishment'.The U.S. company has strongly denied working with any government agencies to create back doors into its products or servers. "We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will," Apple has previously stated.
No doubt you will call that another lie from Apple, without any proof at all. However, it is not. You keep pulling opinions you claim are facts out of your navel when you have no evidence to back you up. You are so paranoid about this kind of idiocy. Why do you even use a computer? I'm surprised you haven't climbed into a hole and pulled it in after you.
I responded to your posting of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. I expect supportable honesty and facts, not name calling and provable misinformation like you've been posting. You demonstrate that you believe that breaking modern encryption is magically easy. It isn't, not even for the NSA. Your thinking so just demonstrates your lack of knowledge on the topic.
Cut out the nastiness and name calling. GIVE IT A REST!
A total canard with the inference being that the user is protected!
It's just not true.
The part about the IOS not transmitting ID signifiers is true, but the idea that the user is protected is false.
While I do not use smart phones today, that does not mean that I did not in the recent past. Even though I explained this once, I will do it again just for the benefit of you.
Any one missing data point, like a identifier does not make you secure. That information can be gleaned in other ways, and over a period of time. Once that is done, it does not have to be done again. For apple or it's millions of sycophants to claim that it is secure is the same sort of mental gymnastics Apple users employ to say that Apple is the most innovative.
Apparently you believe that encryption cannot be broken and the Chinese are too stupid to do it or cannot divine a "key".
I think I'll just leave that with you as it is a ludicrous assumption. That is exactly what the Germans thought in regard to their 4 wheel Enigma machine. The British broke it through data collection and then used what they had collected to assist the programming a rudimentary WWII era computer and crunched the numbers subsequently breaking the codes in spite of the fact that no one actually knew the key or what was in the key on either end. Like all coded messages, there has to be some sort of data located within the messages to identify what key is needed to decrypt. It does not matter where you store the other piece of the data. Eventually it will be found, seized, or in this case given to you. One would of course need to be able to recreate the algorithms needed to recreate the encryption sequence. Every bit of information you collect in this regard shortens the time needed to decrypt. (and computers are now blazing fast compared to what they successfully used in WWII)
The facts are that you are of the opinion that the Apple I-phone is secure and can be safely used by corporations who are highly sensitive to security issues. Apple has been trying to overcome these fears to expand their retail base, and have had some successes. But they still have a long way to go in convincing them and that is because it is not secure and everyone but you apparently knows it.
I would get your head out of the Apple techie blogs where you are immersed in a echo chamber and do a little independent thinking.
I did not originally come here to bash Apple, but that does not mean that they don't deserve bashing...they certainly do.
I only wanted to point out that Apple did something that even google would not do, and they did it because China threatened them and it worked. It did not work with Google as google is not a vertically integrated company like Apple is.
That is Apple's weakness internationally and after this, they will be sharing data or kowtowing to every State Actor on the planet.
There is no secure consumer smart phone. not Apple, not any of them.
Cloud????LOL!.....The cloud is just a server. In the case of China, that server farm is now under Chinese control and access. It's just a matter of time before they use it to add to their data collection base. As they add to to it. All things become exposed. The smart phone is now playing a part in that data collection. A pretty big part, I might add.