Ondrej Holzman The British government is debating a bill that concerns new powers for security forces to monitor the online world and its users, but which does not please Apple at all. The Californian firm even decided to make a unique intervention in British politics and sent its opinion to the relevant committee. According to Apple, the new law threatens to weaken the security of "the personal data of millions of law-abiding citizens."
Lively debate is taking place around the so-called Investigatory Powers Bill, which, according to the British government, is supposed to ensure the safety of the British public, and therefore will give the security forces powers to track online communications. While British lawmakers consider this law to be key, Apple and other technology companies are of the opposite opinion.
"In this rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, businesses should be left with the freedom to deploy strong encryption to protect customers," Apple said in a statement on the bill, which calls for significant changes before it passes.
For example, Apple doesn't like that under the current proposal, the government would be able to demand changes to the way its communication service iMessage works, which would lead to the weakening of encryption and allow security forces to get into iMessage for the first time.
"Creating backdoors and tracking capabilities would weaken protections in Apple products and put all our users at risk," Apple believes. "The key under the doormat wouldn't just be there for the good guys, the bad guys would find it too."
Cupertino is also concerned about another part of the law that would allow security forces to hack into computers around the world. In addition, the companies themselves would have to assist them in doing so, so Apple does not like that it would theoretically have to hack into its own devices.
"It would put companies like Apple, whose relationship with customers is built in part on a sense of trust about how data is handled, in a very difficult position," writes the Californian giant, which, led by Tim Cook, has been fighting against government spying on users for a long time time.
“If you turn off or weaken encryption, you hurt those people who don't want to do bad things. They are the good ones. And the others know where to go," Apple CEO Tim Cook opposed the law already in November, when it was presented.
In a situation where, for example, a customer in Germany had his computer hacked on behalf of Great Britain by an Irish company as part of a collective court order (and moreover, it could not confirm or deny this activity), according to Apple, trust between it and the user would be very difficult to maintain.
“Apple is deeply committed to protecting public safety and shares the government's commitment to fighting terrorism and other crimes. Encryption is key to protecting innocent people from dangerous actors," Apple believes. His and many other parties' requests will now be considered by the committee and the British government will return to the law in February next year.
“Apple is deeply committed to protecting public safety and shares the government's commitment to fighting terrorism and other crimes. Encryption is key to protecting innocent people from dangerous actors.”
This is a bit out of the question. See CISA