Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — 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.

The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: 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.

The key is the encryption that Apple mobile devices automatically put in place when a user selects a passcode, making it difficult for anyone who lacks that passcode to access the information within, including photos, e-mails and recordings. Apple once maintained the ability to unlock some content on devices for legally binding police requests but will no longer do so for iOS 8, it said in the new privacy policy.

“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data,” Apple said on its Web site. “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.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-will-no-longer-unlock-most-iphones-ipads-for-police-even-with-search-warrants/2014/09/17/2612af58-3ed2-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html

[AllyCat]

1. Rock on! I have nothing to hide. So they don't need to access my devices.

[billhicks76]

6. You Have Nothing To Hide?

I hope that's sarcasm. Who gives a crap if someone has something to hide or not. These drug war mercenaries are traitors.

[AllyCat]

18. Yeah, it was sort of. Also wee hours of morning

My comment was a slant of the ole "if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't object to search" bs that people trot out whenever someone argues for more surveillance. I've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide so THEY DON'T NEED access to my data. Unless they have a warrant. And just cause. But since that isn't happening, I applaud Apple's efforts to make it so. Now, do we believe them?

[Hosnon]

22. Right? I prefer hiding my sex acts and poops, to name just two things. nt.

[silvershadow]

8. You would be surprised at what trivial and non-consequesntial material "they" might use

against you, even if you have done nothing. Plenty of people have been wrongly accused, wrongly convicted, and even wrongly executed in this country. See the Innocence Project for one. Note: The lengths to which one might stretch to put a case together against you cannot be underestimated, as it is likely proportional to their need to achieve their goals; i.e.: they need to frame someone, they need to solve a crime, they need to hit their quota, on and on.

Besides all of that and more, that doesn't address the fact that virtually everything they have done since 9/11 has been patently illegal and unconstitutional. Jmho.

[Live and Learn]

11. +1 nt

[AllyCat]

19. Agree. Please see my reply to the poster up thread

[Live and Learn]

12. Never been tempted to buy an Apple device, until now.

Hopefully others follow suit but I doubt it.

[lob1]

2. If it's true, that's really great. Good for Apple.

[winstars]

3. This is huge... Cops will scream... But they used to catch criminals before cell phones right???

I read the comments at the WP story. I don't know too much about this technically, some people claim this can really be done, some say the FBI, NSA etc will still be able to crack the Apple encryption.

It certainly is a big deal for them even to say what they have said, it will be interesting to watch the reaction...

[Kablooie]

4. I know where all my plans for the bank heist will be stored now!

And the movies of me dancing the Macarena naked will never be revealed to the FBI. Whew!

[joshcryer]

5. That's fantastic, but will it have an NSA backdoor?

I think the answer to that is obvious.

[Live and Learn]

10. Doesn't sound like it. Apple is absolving themselves by

being unable to access it themselves. It is quite possible to do. Kudos to Apple for doing so.

[joshcryer]

14. Android has had this feature since 3.0. 3 years ago.

It's just not enabled by default.

Kudos to them for enabling it by default as it will likely cause a raise in consumer discontent as people lose data if / when they need a hard reset.

[billhicks76]

7. Law Enforcement Has Become The New Criminals

They are just an armed gang now. The type of people entire societies have revolted and toppled regimes over. In the article they gush over the possibility of another terrorist attack to undo these reforms. You KNOW some of them will stage or incite an attack just to get more homeland security dollars in their greedy pockets. I know the solution...legalize ALL DRUGs so they don't have an incentive to do this and fleece the American People with their criminal Drug War...then they can focus on all these terrorists we have never seen here.

[cui bono]

13. +1

Murderers too, not just thieves. Sickening.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. won't the authorities simply use a fingerprint dupe to access the whole phone/pad?

http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/22/chaos-computer-club-fingerprint/

Sounds like they are just taking out the middleman... not to mention I doubt anything in a commerical phone is in the least bit safe from hacking -- just sounds like they want to pretend to stay out of it and will still have to turn over drives and storage to authorities, be it encrypted or not. At that point, it'll be unspun by others.

[Hoppy]

16. not if you don't use that feature

[closeupready]

20. Exactly. They lied before, they are likely lying now.

Profits trump truth, peace, and just about everything else in this hyper-capitalistic utopia. When the truth hurts profits, lie.

[Sherman A1]

15. Excellent!

This is good news. It appears that items uploaded to the cloud are still available to being searched, but not the device itself.

A big step in the right direction.

[christx30]

21. That's why I have my cloud upload

disabled. There's nothing on my phone that would kill me if I lost it. Just some pictures of my kids. And a really good recipe for chili.

[Sherman A1]

24. Well,

back up those pics and that chili recipe.

[IDemo]

17. Nice. So they have deleted this feature from the OS? ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025273004

[hughee99]

23. I guess instead they decided to half-ass their security enough that it won't be necessary anymore.

Nice work, Apple!

[IDemo]

25. Despite Apple’s Privacy Pledge, Cops Can Still Pull Data Off a Locked iPhone

A reminder to iPhone owners cheering Apple’s latest privacy win: Just because Apple will no longer help police to turn your smartphone inside out doesn’t mean it can prevent the cops from vivisecting the device on their own.

On Wednesday evening Apple made news with a strongly-worded statement about how it protects users’ data from government requests. And the page noted at least one serious change in that privacy stance: No longer will Apple aid law enforcement or intelligence agencies in cracking its users’ passcodes to access their email, photos, or other mobile data. That’s a 180-degree flip from its previous offer to cops, which demanded only that they provide the device to Apple with a warrant to have its secrets extracted.

In fact, Apple claims that the new scheme now makes Apple not only unwilling, but unable to open users’ locked phones for law enforcement. “Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access [your personal] data,” reads the new policy. “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 the media and privacy activists congratulated Apple on that new resistance to government snooping, iOS forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski offered a word of caution for the millions of users clamoring to pre-order the iPhone 6 and upgrade to iOS 8. In many cases, he points out, the cops can still grab and offload sensitive data from your locked iPhone without Apple’s help, even in iOS 8. All they need, he says, is your powered-on phone and access to a computer you’ve previously used to move data onto and off of it.

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apple-iphone-security/

[Psephos]

27. good info - thanks n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

26. ha ha ha ha ha

The fraudsters will get around that - no problem whatsoever! See it all the time in my line of work -


So Apple will only build to protect against the cops?

I can't wait to see how the fraud down line hacks this shit!