[hbosch]

Damaging how? People will stop buying iPhones? Be realistic.

Assuming the story is true, you lie lie lie until something bigger in the news happens then you quietly relent.

[itake]

Personally I buy Apple because they are more private than android. I would look at alternatives if Apple was caught lying here.

[mandevil]

Well, what was Apple's response to the PRISM revelations?

Apple: "We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order."

PRISM: "Collection directly from the servers of these US service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple" A later slide claims that Apple joined the program in October 2012.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-... for those documents.

So, was Apple lying about PRISM? The Snowden documents certainly seem to support that position[1]. If they lied about PRISM, why would you trust them now?

[1]: Obviously there are possibilities like Snowden documents were wrong, or deliberate hoaxes, etc. Spy games are fun!