Privacy is one of Apple’s best marketing tools, and Cupertino knows it. This is demonstrated by measures such as the App Store’s privacy notices, which aim to inform the user of the treatment that applications make of our data. This defense of privacy is currently facing the whole of the British government.
It is in this country that we want more control over the communication of applications, but to such an extent that Apple would be forced to relax its security measures to avoid problems. AND Apple has been clear: it prefers to suspend its services in the United Kingdom rather than comply with these new rules.
“A serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy”
The BBC details the changes it wants to apply from Downing Street: the British government wants to be able to force companies like Apple to deactivate certain security measures for specific cases, which Cupertino should do immediately and without any independent entity being able to investigate the case (as it must be done at the moment).
This can expose services like iMessage or FaceTime, which include device-to-device encryption by default and prevent governments or Apple itself from accessing our conversations. Until now, the normal thing is that in times of extreme necessity (like locating a terrorist), Apple and governments work together to facilitate access to a device. But this is done in a very concrete way and Apple publishes all these collaborations in a transparent way.
Apple has been specific and has already stated that it categorically refuses the demands of this new law such as the obligation to inform the government of any changes in its services or applications. In his own words, the proposal “poses a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy”. Before they would rather disable services like iMessage and FaceTime than comply with this law if passed. And they’re not alone: Services like Signal have also threatened to disappear.
The good news is that the UK government is constantly in communication with tech companies to try to reach an agreement, so there is hope that the proposed changes will take shape so that users continue to have properly protected communications. We’ll see if they finally get it.
Imagen | James Giddin
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