Apple Has Your Back (Door): Top Stories for Thursday
LOCKDOWN: Apple has added a significant security feature to its latest software upgrade that makes it impossible for the company to unlock iPhones for law enforcement — an "engineering solution to a legal quandary," writes Craig Timberg of the Washington Post. By removing itself from the equation Apple is "taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information":
Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked its latest encryption in a way that prevents the company — or anyone but the device’s owner — from gaining access to the vast troves of user data typically stored on smartphones or tablet computers.
Even better: There is nothing new to learn. Encryption occurs when the phone is locked using a personal passcode (which you already use, right?) Per Apple's new privacy section:
Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it's not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.
But, as Brian Chen points out at the New York Times, this does nothing to enhance the privacy of data backed up on iCloud — the target of a recent high profile hacker attack in which private, nude and partially nude selfies of celebs like Jennifer Lawrence were obtained. "The new security in iOS 8 protects information stored on the device itself, but not data stored on Apple’s cloud service," Chen writes. "So Apple will still be able to hand over some customer information stored on iCloud in response to government requests."
Which means that iPhone users still face a conundrum: If you back up to Apple's cloud, some of your data is still subject to a warrant search (though not your calling and messaging history, which is what the cops usually want most). Backing up to your laptop using iTunes keeps Apple out of that situation, too. And if your computer is also password-protect that may — may — also shield you from a search warrant under the 5th Amendment, which protects you from being forced to give the government self-incriminating testimony.
Still, the commitment from Apple seems very robust. In an open letter, CEO Tim Cook flatly asserts that Apple has never secretly divulged any customer information, and won't:
… I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.
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BOOKISH: I once boldly predicted that Amazon would take over the world with a $50 Kindle. Amazon has finally heard my prognostication for 2013 — and released a $200 Kindle instead. My argument was that, at $50, an e-reader would be a no-brainer for students of all ages, and would breathe some life into a single-use appliance that was sure to be trampled to death by multi-purpose tablets and smartphones. Yeah, that didn't happen. And as Terrence O'Brien writes at Engadget, Amazon sees an opportunity at the high-end instead, and has introduced the Kindle Voyage:
Perhaps Amazon sold a lot of 3G Paperwhites without special offers. Or maybe Kobo's Aura HD has quietly taken the world by storm and Jeff Bezos decided he needed an answer. Whatever the impetus, Amazon has decided there is room in the world for a $199 e-reader.
Innovation is a wonderful thing, and Amazon is one of those companies that isn't afraid to try stuff out. The fact that Amazon essentially invented the e-reader business gives them lots of street cred. That said, Amazon has a mixed record on hardware. The Kindle DX was … difficult to understand. So much so that, when Amazon resurrected it, Darrell Etherington at Techcrunch described it as "That Most Awkward Cousin Of A Device Family On The Way Out" (while simultaneously joining my dumb-guy club that e-readers were dead). More recently, Amazon began giving away the Fire Phone after only a few weeks on the market. Initial reaction to Kindle Voyage is gushing. One example, from Dieter Bohn at The Verge: "It's hard not to fall immediately in love with Amazon's new top-of-the-line e-reader … it ticks off virtually every single hardware complaint I've had about the Kindle Paperwhite." And this from a guy who still prefers printed books.
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INDEPENDENCE DAY? Scots are voting today on breaking away from the United Kingdom. A record number of citizens have registered to take part — a staggering 97% of the populace, report Alistair Gray, Mark Odell and Andy Sharman in the Financial Times. And turnout, on a day that was mostly clear across Scotland with some light drizzle here and there, seems to be off the hook as well:
Campaigners in the leafy west end of Glasgow reported that queues formed outside polling stations before they opened at 7am. Greeting voters outside Hyndland Secondary School, Peter Taylor, a 64-year-old Glasgow Labour party member, said: “I’ve stood outside this school several times for elections before. I would say this is getting on for 50 per cent greater [number of people].”
If the final pre-election poll is to be believed, this is as close as it can get:
Based on responses from 991 people questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday, 50 per cent of those certain to vote said they would vote No, with 45 per cent saying they would vote Yes and 4 per cent still undecided. Excluding those undecided, 53 per cent said they planned to vote No, with 47 per cent to vote Yes.
Voting ends at 5 pm ET (9 pm GMT) tonight.
Photo: Neirfy / shutterstock
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