[saagarjha]

This is one of the reasons why it’s nice that Apple currently has no access to health data. They might change this is the future, but you can always stop sharing then. (Rather than them saying they’re cool, having your data, and doing something malicious with it later.)

[BiteCode_dev]

Because their software is not open source and they are very secretive, you have no way to verify that.

No to mention it assumes you would know about their change of heart, which you may not.

Apple said they were not part of any spying program, until it was revealed they were part of PRISM.

They also said their home button had a hardware problem and you had to buy a new phone, when it's been later demonstrated it could be fixed with software.

Everything a company says must be considered marketting until proven otherwise.

It's not specific to Apple, and it's not a moral stand. It's a practical approach to have with every companies since their driver is being profitable.

[DagAgren]

> Apple also said they were not part of any spying program, until it was revealed they were part of PRISM.

This does not seem like an accurate statement. After the PRISM revelations, which named Apple, Apple said they were unaware of the program and were not giving them access. As far as I know, this is the way things still stand today. The leaks claim access to Apple, Apple says they are not providing access. This may be explained through either party lying, or by the FBI being able to access Apple without their cooperation.

> They also said their home button had a hardware problem and you had to buy a new phone, when it's been later demonstrated it could be fixed with software.

This also seems inaccurate. Apple has never claimed you need to buy a new phone if the home button breaks. The actual issue is that the home button is part of the security system of the phone, runs its own fingerprint detection and is paired with the mainboard, and thus cannot be replaced without updating this pairing, otherwise there would be a trivial security break for the fingerprint protection. As a result, only Apple have the required access to replace the button, and thus third-party replacements are impossible.

As far as I know this is also still the case.

[BiteCode_dev]

> This does not seem like an accurate statement. After the PRISM revelations, which named Apple, Apple said they were unaware of the program and were not giving them access. As far as I know, this is the way things still stand today. The leaks claim access to Apple, Apple says they are not providing access. This may be explained through either party lying, or by the FBI being able to access Apple without their cooperation

Of course, gag orders (and PR common sense), prevent them from giving you this information.

But given what we know about the NSA and the context around it, I'm enclined to trust The Guardian and Snowden about it.

> This also seems inaccurate. Apple has never claimed you need to buy a new phone if the home button breaks. The actual issue is that the home button is part of the security system of the phone, runs its own fingerprint detection and is paired with the mainboard, and thus cannot be replaced without updating this pairing, otherwise there would be a trivial security break for the fingerprint protection. As a result, only Apple have the required access to replace the button, and thus third-party replacements are impossible.

No, the failure I'm refering to is of the iPhone 4 home button, which didn't have a fingerprint sensor yet.

[DagAgren]

> But given what we know about the NSA and the context around it, I'm enclined to trust The Guardian and Snowden about it.

None of my options suggested above required not trusting them. Either Apple lies about cooperating, the FBI lies about having access, or the FBI has access without Apple's knowledge.

Anyway, their statements on the matter go much further than what a gag order would require.

[bergstromm466]

Dang, I'm keen to understand the process here on HN because I can see my reply is hidden, not flagged. It is only visible to me when I am logged in. Where can I read about your framework that you use to make decisions like this?

[saagarjha]

You're shadowbanned, usually because people have flagged your comments as nonconstructive in the past, and although I would personally think your other one is a bit ranty it's probably not worth being flagged, so I vouched for that one and this. If you're seeing this consistently I would email the moderators at [e-mail]; they'll be able to help.

[bergstromm466]

> You're shadowbanned

saagarjha and dang - please could you give an answer to my previous question?

[bergstromm466]

> You're shadowbanned

@dang @saagarjha - Does this mean all my comments will keep getting banned? I just wrote a comment, and it is blocked again. Where can I read the rules/process on shadowbanning? I am committed to trying to tone down my replies and focus on being accepting of others' realities, and being constructive.

[bergstromm466]

Thanks

[bergstromm466]

> and thus cannot be replaced without updating this pairing

Congrats, you've successfully swallowed both the marketing of Apple the corporation, and the marketing of the 'benevolent' rentier hacker empire that is America! [1]

I believe PRISM, Crypto AG, Dual_EC_DRBG, Intel Management Engine, etc. are just the tip of the iceberg. I think we're only just now starting to understand the massive impacts of the continued existence of these backdoors. The immense covert power the NSA has had since the beginning of the digital age (and in the case of the CIA-owned Crypto AG, even long before [2]), most of these powers it has actually been able to keep post-Snowden. Have you heard of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which Snowden revealed is used extensively by the NSA [3]? If yes, then you know that it is undemocratic, yes? We cannot have courts that are closed, and at the same time call ourselves a democratic country. That is Doublespeak.

Is it strange that many are starting to see the US as essentially the biggest propaganda machine in our new hyperconnected digital world? That it is selling the wasteful consumerist nuclear family way of life, plundering the commons, while at the same time being a militant (military industrial complex) hypocritical rogue agent through parasitical corporate neo-colonial practices [4]?

How many times do these things need to happen for us to start believing it?

Fuck Captain America. Fuck Hollywood. Fuck the NSA powered US empire. Fuck the corporate charter.

I am talking about the power we humans have given to these ideas. I mean the people in them no harm. I am campaigning for us to collectively transcend these ideas and to stop destroying our earth's capacity to support humanity. The idea of America, the NSA etc. are in actual fact metaphysical power systems that do violence to hundreds of millions of people, daily [5]. The sooner we dismantle the current racist systems [6], especially black-box surveillance apparatus, and shift away from Platform Surveillance Capitalism and move towards Protocol Cooperativism, the better. We can do this using technologies like Ceptr and the Holographic chain pattern/framework by the MetaCurrency Project (an agent-centric Ruby on Rails-type framework for distributed networking applications, built using ideas from Git and BitTorrent)[7].

I believe Commons based peer production (instead of firm production) has to be our future. For beautiful visions I often turn to the works of Kevin Carson, Arthur Brock and Eric Harris-Braun.

[1] https://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-08-03/book-day-corru...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/812499752/uncovering-the-cias...

[3] https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/fbi-nsa-mass-surveillanc...

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btF6nKHo2i0

[5] http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/carl-jung-psychoanalyzes-...

[6] https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/banking-against-black-ca...

[7] https://medium.com/holochain/holochain-reinventing-applicati...