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Apple says it would remove iMessage and FaceTime in the UK rather than break end-to-end encryption (9to5mac.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/apple_enthusiast@lemmy.world
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[–] 64 points 3 years ago* (8 children)

This is one thing Apple has been pretty firm on. You can’t have a secure product and have backdoors. You can try to hide them all you want, but a backdoor will always be a massive security vulnerability.

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  • [+] 32 points 3 years ago (6 children)
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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    They moved the storage of encryption keys for Chinese users to servers in China instead of shutting down iMessage and Facetime. Quite the different response compared to here.

    I was assuming Apple was posturing until they'd actually have to do something.
    They could well have postured in China as well, before backtracking. I have no Idea if that happened, but it seems reasonable from a PR vs Legal vs business development standpoint.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago*

    They moved the storage of encryption keys for Chinese users to servers in China instead of shutting down iMessage and Facetime.

    These are totally separate things. Apple users in China can still use iMessage and FaceTime and those are still end-to-end encrypted. If you choose to store your iMessages in iCloud, those can be accessed by the government, but that's the same as they can in every other country. The UK's proposal is to directly break the security of iMessage itself, something worse than what China has done.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (3 children)

    They moved the storage of encryption keys for Chinese users to servers in China

    No they didn't. iMessage can only be decrypted by keys stored in the secure enclave on your device.

    There are some things that the Chinese government can access. The contents of messages isn't one of them.

    And as for Facetime... those calls aren't recorded at all. Not sure how a legal order is supposed to allow access to data that doesn't even exist.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    I agree that's not how it works in most places but I don't assume to know the inner working of a Chinese iphone or the version of iOS it's running. If there is a financial incentive apple will bend for China while also saying it didn't.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    The way Facetime works is extensively documented and thoroughly audited by third parties - many of whom publish their findings.

    If China had a back door into Facetime, I suspect I'd know about it as someone who follows these things pretty closely.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Right but none of it is open source so being extensively documented doesn't mean much and what I said still stands. You are assuming that what apple has told you is the truth with zero 3rd party audits of the underlying code.

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