this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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Privacy
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Not lying that they are improving the privacy of users would be a good start
But what should they specifically do in this case to improve the situation - got any actual suggestions?
Signal sends notifications via Apple's push notification servers. So I'm still not quite clear what are suggesting. That apps run continuously in the background. each doing real-time polling of their respective servers for notifications? Because your battery ain't going to last long.
That sounds like a cracking idea, the suggestion is that something in Apple's ToS prevents this generally - but is that the case, if Signal manages it?
No, I don't have any suggestion for how should Apple circumvent laws. But if they can't improve on it, they shouldn't lie that they did so.
Hang on - what exactly did they lie about?
They're lying about many things, such as their respect for privacy, right to repair, sustainability, what else. Oh they've lied about use of slave labor if I recall correctly
So rather that talking in generalities what specific lies have they told about respect for privacy?
Took me 5 seconds to find the first lie on their website
That’s a claim. You haven’t given any tangible evidence that it’s a lie, you just talk in handywavy generalities
This article is a clear evidence. If Apple cared, they'd not send sensitive messages in clear text they can just hand over to pigs
Anyways, are you paid to shill for apple?
No, the article is clear evidence that they are imperfect - not that they don't generally care about user privacy. In general the work they have done on privacy has been pretty good. Apple mandating end-to-end encryption might be something that they sholuld have done - and that's a reasonable criticism, but it looks like it is possible for individual app makers to encrypt their notifications: . There's syill the metadata, of course.
If I am being paid to shill for Apple they are being particularly tardy with their payments. But to answer your question, no - I'm a user who is privacy conscious and thinks Apple does a reasonable job.
I am, however always interested in knowing about where they are falling down so I can mitigate. General handy wavy accusations don't really help me practically - or indeed anyone.
Sorry for the delay. In this case they were lying that they have improved their process regarding handling such orders, implying that they will now only comply for fewer orders that they can't (yet) deny.
Previously they required a subpoena, now they require a court order. So what was the lie?
A subpoena is a court order. Nothing has changed and they market that as an improvement.
https://www.wordnik.com/words/subpoena
https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/59478/what-is-the-difference-between-a-subpoena-and-a-court-order
If anything, they have even broadened the scope of documents they now accept for information disclosure requests.
From the orginal linked reporting, it appears that previously Apple would accept a subpoena subpoena issued by police departments and law enforcement agencies with no judicial oversight. Under the new policy there has to be a court order or a search warrant, both of which have to be approved by a judge.
This feels like a tightening to me. https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/13/apple-push-notifications-government-warrant/