From Bloomberg’s “Apple Back in Washington Spotlight Over Trump-Era Subpoenas” posted Tuesday:
Apple Inc. is facing renewed scrutiny in Washington over its compliance with secret Trump-era subpoenas for user data on more than 100 users including U.S. lawmakers, highlighting the bind tech companies find themselves in when obliged to satisfy law enforcement demands.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, whose data was among material Apple turned over to the Justice Department, said on Monday that lawmakers will delve into how giant tech companies respond to subpoenas for information on their customers. Schiff, a California Democrat, enraged former President Donald Trump with congressional investigations of his administration’s ties to Russia.
The House Judiciary Committee on Monday announced an investigation into the Justice Department’s surveillance of members of Congress, journalists and others, ostensibly sparked by an effort to run down media leaks. The Senate Judiciary Committee also said it would look into the matter…
“The explosion in digital data that is held by internet companies and other third parties has made these subpoenas much more powerful and much more intrusive on people’s privacy,” said Elizabeth Goitein of the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “We rely on companies that hold this data to stand up for us and protect our interests and our privacy rights in response to these kinds of demands, and it’s not always clear that they have the incentive to do that.”
My take: Now that everyone is piling on, I’m inclined to cut Apple a little more slack. None of this is a good look for Tim Cook, of course. I thought Microsoft’s Brad Stone set the right tone in Sunday’s Washington Post: “The secret gag orders must stop.”
Just guessing out loud.
When Tim Cook refused to create a backdoor for the FBI, almost everyone piled on.
What he could not say directly was that we cannot trust government agencies, because the people running them can always be corrupted by greed, lust for power, coercion or negligence.
Back to Schiff: We have separation of powers to prevent abuse by one branch. In today’s polarized world, you have to reach across the aisle to make this work. Don’t lose focus.
All this “piling on” sure seems to be missing -legal analysis- on the legal validity of the subpoena and gag order. Without that analysis, this is just political whining. Do we really want companies like Apple, Facebook, Fox, etc, etc. deciding which subpoenas they will or will not honor?
1. Any surveillance requests for a Member of Congress, Congressional Staff, Congressperson’s family shall be approved personally by the AG.
2. Any surveillance requests for that group shall also be disclosed to the “Gang of 8” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_%28intelligence%29 (Or ‘a Gang of 7’ if one of the “Gang of 8” is the target of the request.)
After his statements, I wonder if he added, “Gee, did I just say that out loud?”
We know they think they are not to be treated as the commoner, but it’s not very often that they say it out loud.
Only if you look at it superficially, which is normally what politicians (and too often the press) do.
When the dust settles, I think Cook and Co will be looking pretty good. As long as they follow the law without prejudice, they will come out just fine. They protected the commoner (& criminal) with the rights provided by the law (no back door), and didn’t provide favors to the powerful, who only think they are above the law.
Hackers and police departments clone suspect phones with similar data I’m still not permitted to enumerate, due to NDAs, gag orders without an end date.
As we all know, a judge follows or interprets the law. Either change the judge or change the law.
Apple has stated repeatedly that they follow the laws of the country they are doing business in. As a multi-national corporation they have no choice. Especially with a nonstop tsunami of subpoena requests in the pipeline at any given moment.
Using Apple as a political scapegoat is low hanging fruit. Apparently, Congress challenging judges who follow laws that Congress writes is far too ironical for them.
Solution: Write better law.
https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/
I had to pay a TV tax when I lived in England and Germany. Drive on the wrong side in New Zealand. Get vaccinated for Yellow Fever. I had to submit to rather invasive exit interviews and interviews upon return to US. I followed all the laws of each land, despite my personal opinion of those laws
I’m with others here: Make iOS impenetrable so Apple has nothing to give others in the way of metadata, etc.