Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) provided a formal statement expressing encryption concerns to the committee working on the controversial surveillance bill in the United Kingdom. Apple is not relenting on their fight against the weakening of the privacy of their users. According to their CEO, compromising the privacy will open the system for both the good people and the bad people, which is not a good thing.
“It is not right to compromise the security of millions of our users yet the users who pose a threat are few if at all there are any,” Apple claimed. “The best option for service providers and operating systems is to increase encryption in this period where the rate of cyber crimes has increased.”
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also pointed out that the government of the UK drafted the bill so fast and wanted to fast track its signing to avoid opposition. At a simple glance, the bill seems to be protecting the mass surveillance power. However, the bill includes laws that dictate that ISPs should keep records of their users’ internet sessions for 12 months.
The bill has also stirred up the encryption debate. The committee responsible for coming up with the bill defends the statements in the bill that imply that encryption should be weakened. However, major tech companies, including Apple, insist that the government of the UK has widened altered the previous laws governing issues to do with encryption.
Apple is particularly angered by the laws that plan to weaken the iMessage protocols. Currently, any data exchanged on iMessage are encrypted in such a way that even Apple cannot view the data because they do not have the keys do to decrypt the data. If Apple provides a backdoor access for the government agencies, the system is at risk of a hack by the malicious people.
“Coming up with backdoor access for security agencies to intercept data and eavesdrop on users’ data could be for the good of national security, but it is an act that will endanger all users,” Apple insisted. “The bad guys will be very capable of gaining access to the users messages, which is a potential danger that government agencies are ignoring.”
Another section of the draft that Apple does not agree with is the part that gives security agencies the right to hack into computers and phones and requires internet providers to help in the hack. Apple referred to the Snowden disclosure sagas and said that the last time an internet provider helped the government in a hack, it did not end well.
