Signaling Post-Snowden Era, New iPhone Locks Out N.S.A.

WASHINGTON — Devoted customers of Apple products these days worry about whether the new iPhone 6 will bend in their jean pockets. The National Security Agency and the nation’s law enforcement agencies have a different concern: that the smartphone is the first of a post-Snowden generation of equipment that will disrupt their investigative abilities.

The phone encrypts emails, photos and contacts based on a complex mathematical algorithm that uses a code created by, and unique to, the phone’s user — and that Apple says it will not possess.

Personally, I am a little torn as to whether this is completely a good thing. I see the pro's, but also am considering the con's.

The result, the company is essentially saying, is that if Apple is sent a court order demanding that the contents of an iPhone 6 be provided to intelligence agencies or law enforcement, it will turn over gibberish, along with a note saying that to decode the phone’s emails, contacts and photos, investigators will have to break the code or get the code from the phone’s owner.

The article goes on to say it could take up to 5 years to decode a phone. This could be big trouble in cases like child abductions, and greatly increase the time it takes to locate an abductor.

At Apple and Google, company executives say the United States government brought these changes on itself. The revelations by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden not only killed recent efforts to expand the law, but also made nations around the world suspicious that every piece of American hardware and software — from phones to servers made by Cisco Systems — have “back doors” for American intelligence and law enforcement.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think in this time of global turmoil, this might not be for the best?

Read more:www.nytimes.com...

But.. They recalled the ios8 update, did they change this then?

The one thing Android didn't have years ago.

Step it up on the update Android!!

I noticed there has been a lot of hate directed at the latest iphone, social media sites are full of memes belittling or ridiculing it. It raises the spectre that the NSA is behind the campaign just to keep customers away from it and it's encryption features.

a reply to: proob4

Good question, proob. The article I am quoting is dated yesterday, 9.26.14

All Apple has done (aside from muck up my ATS experience) is remove itself from the equation of TPTB and their customers. Simply put: Apple was the middleman ... and they are no more.

They've already given away all of your information ... just like every other corporation National Security has their claws in.

Don't buy into the hype Apple is selling. The government can decrypt your # in real time if they want. If the government couldn't decrypt it ... the product wouldn't be for sale. Spade.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Anyone else skeptical? IMHO this is theater for the masses. Apple, like all the big firms, is in bed with these agencies.

When it comes to electronic communications (email, texts, voice and data), its all being recorded and stored.

Our privacy rights, which used to be protected by the 4th Amendment, are gone.

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
I noticed there has been a lot of hate directed at the latest iphone, social media sites are full of memes belittling or ridiculing it. It raises the spectre that the NSA is behind the campaign just to keep customers away from it and it's encryption features.

Oh yeah. That. Could be.

a reply to: gladtobehere
You might be right, but I know you guys know what I'm thinking. I just don't want this to become a tool for the Daesh.

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting


Is it just me, or does anyone else think in this time of global turmoil, this might not be for the best?

Read more:www.nytimes.com...

I would rather have liberty than the "assurance" of safety. Global turmoil or not, the NSA has no right to snoop in my personal files, nor your personal files. Nor the personal files of those who are NOT citizens of the United States. So for that I applaud Apple.

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
a reply to: proob4

Good question, proob. The article I am quoting is dated yesterday, 9.26.14

Well the thing is after the story about the encryption it seemed like Apple announced it had problems with the ios8 update and wanted users to to re-update and reinstall it. I just wonder if this changed the encryption and opened a backdoor for the NSA or other alphabet agencies now?

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Let's see, let me wildly speculate from assumed ignorance.... If I was NSA, I would simply stack the encrypted phone messages side by side with all other collected data of a particular person. That would be all of the unencrypted phone stuff, GPS locations, computer records, searches and emails, purchases of books and materials with credit cards, orgs belonged to, and all info on other people that person contained in his or her devices.

Your co-accompanist(s) in this encrypted communication would, of course, be easy to find as they would show up in your records. And it would greatly aid the "authorities" if they were to also collect the data on them as that would be help form a picture of what a threat you are to the system. So in working all of this data together, I would surmise they could damned well know about what you were thinking.

There ain't no reasonable escape folks.

I read an article on this earlier this morning; my take was very scary as I felt the FBI's position was only criminals and terrorist need privacy. Ouch that kind of thinking will to lead to the destruction of our right to privacy; should every detail of your life be an open book to be read by only god knows who?

Apple is only trying to sell a product that is less than what it was hyped to be. Your data kept private? Yeah right...NSA locked out? They want you to think so..

originally posted by: Iamthatbish
The one thing Android didn't have years ago.

Step it up on the update Android!!

Uh... I don't know why yours doesn't, my android phone has had full phone encryption using asymmetric keys since I got my first android phone, some 4 years ago.

a reply to: AreUKiddingMe

I will agree that the NSA's super computers can probably break apples privacy encrytions.

How ever I wonder if apples encryption can stop this:

Apparently Michigan State Police have been using a high-tech mobile forensics device that can pull information from over 3,000 types of cell phones in under only two minutes. The information the device is able to export is basically everything from your smartphone, including call history, deleted phone data, text messages, contacts, images, and GPS data. And don’t think you’ll be safe if your phone is password-protected, the device can get around that too.

source

The high-tech device works with 3000 different phone models and can bypass passwords to process “Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” according to CelleBrite, the company behind the device. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”

source

I think this bothers me more then the NSA getting our data, but I feel neither is right.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

So you thought this too.

Something tells me they're on an all-out campaign to make the users appear stupid and clueless. Maybe they are behind it?

But I can see how Apple wants to look like the saviors of privacy when in the end they're storing/giving away your data in other ways.

a reply to: BMorris

Honestly the weak link in security is the people using it most times. Idr if I was teasing or not but, anyone is free to read what I read and try to decipher if I'm kidding with my friends and family right along with me.

I think advertising this feature is a set up. I usually think most things are, this however will allow many fools to be caught in their foolishness.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

No such thing as a NSA Lock Out. Same with all LET (Law Enforcement Teams utilizing the Stingrays) or even foreign Agencies that know what they are doing in the communications industry for that matter.

Yeah, but all they have to do with the new iPhone to get all the secrets out of it is......

1. put it in your pocket till it bends.

2. remove from pocket and straighten.

3. when it cracks all the secrets spill out.

4. Apple sends you a new phone in Gitmo