Apple is building an online portal for police to make data requests

[steven36]

 

The tech giant is also upgrading its program that trains law enforcement in digital forensics.

 

Apple is creating a dedicated team to help train law enforcement officials around the world in digital forensics, the company said Tuesday in a letter to Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. 

The company is also working on an online portal, set to be operational by the end of 2018, where law enforcement officials can submit and track requests for data and obtain responses from Apple. When the portal goes live, police and law enforcement agents will be able to apply for "authentication credentials," Apple said in the letter.

 

The letter, seen by CNET, addresses recommendations made in a report issued earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) regarding cybersecurity and the "digital evidence needs" of law enforcement agencies.

 

Apple said in the letter that it's eager to adopt the report's recommendations, including making upgrades to its law enforcement training program. This includes developing an online training module for police that mirrors Apple's current in-person training, according to the letter and to details on the company's website.

 

 

"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. 

 

Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."

 

Along with tech companies like Google and Microsoft, Apple regularly publishes transparency reports detailing how often it gets requests for data from governments as well as private parties. In the first half of 2017, for example, Apple received between 13,250 and 13,499 national security requests from the US law enforcement. 

 

Source

[Rekkio]

They don't say if each user request has to be duly approved by users and provided a valid justification for access, or if they will just hand out credentials for the 'law enforcement' to dump any user's online storage without any valid justification.

 

Anyway you should encrypt your online storage with client-side encryption to prevent them from reading anything without asking you for authorization. So Apple and Big-Tech cannot approve access on your behalf, at the end these 'authorities' can either ask for your permission or not get anything at all.

 

While I myself don't currently encrypt online storages, I still keep the ability to start doing so for new files at any time 

[steven36]

1 hour ago, Rekkio said:

They don't say if each user request has to be duly approved by users and provided a valid justification for access, or if they will just hand out credentials for the 'law enforcement' to dump any user's online storage without any valid justification.

 

Anyway you should encrypt your online storage with client-side encryption to prevent them from reading anything without asking you for authorization. So Apple and Big-Tech cannot approve access on your behalf, at the end these 'authorities' can either ask for your for permission or not get anything at all.

 

While I myself don't currently encrypt online storages, I still keep the ability to start doing so for new files at any time 

The info that Apple gives law enforcement helps them out a lot

 

Apple and Facebook helped bust the world's biggest torrent site

https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/21/kickasstorrents-apple-facebook-homeland-security/

 

If you encrypt  your hard drives and  law enforcement can't unlock it,  they could hold you in jail, tell you do, no court or nothing

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/man-jailed-indefinitely-for-refusing-to-decrypt-hard-drives-loses-appeal/

 

Only reason FBI took Apple to court of unlocking that IOS was because it belonged to dead people ..If you still alive they can put you and jail and throw away the key tell you unlock it.

 

So  its best to not have nothing on your PC  that is a felony, stuff like watching movies , tv shows and music is just a civil crime in the USA,  they got bigger fish to fry unless you own a big warez site and make millions off it. The info law enforcement gets from apple can help link you too a crime and it don't have nothing to do with encryption it's your costumer id info they after.  Same as when some vpns helped law enforcement link people too crimes. When you use services signed in from Big Tech and even some vpns  it leaves a finger print  for the police to go after .

 

Quote

Warning: Apple iOS devices are affected by PRISM. Even using the software tools we recommend here, your privacy may be compromised by iOS itself. The operating system of any device can unfortunately lever out any privacy protection that a program tries to offer you. The latter has to run in the confines of the OS after all.

https://prism-break.org/en/categories/ios/

 

Quote

Warning: Apple macOS is affected by PRISM. Even using the software tools we recommend here, your privacy may be compromised by macOS itself. The operating system of any device can unfortunately lever out any privacy protection that a program tries to offer you. The latter has to run in the confines of the OS after all. We strongly recommend replacing macOS with either Linux or BSD.

https://prism-break.org/en/categories/macos/

 

Any info that has canary warrant involved  Big Tech can't disclose it  tell  law enforcement tells them it's OK,  so  you want see that on any transparency report tell  after the info becomes no longer valuable  to  law enforcement.

[straycat19]

1 hour ago, Rekkio said:

They don't say if each user request has to be duly approved by users and provided a valid justification for access

 

Of course they will have to have some official documentation from a court, except for exigent circumstances which is described as imminent lost of life or property that requires immediate access to the data, in which no warrant is needed.  Users won't have to approve anything unless they have some personally encrypted data which they will then be required to decrypt.

 

The interesting part of the article is that they will be teaching LEOs how to run forensics on apple devices which previously could not be done by law enforcement because they were locked/encrypted.  While they don't specifically come out and state that fact, it is implicitly implied since if you can't unlock/decrypt it you can't do forensics on it.

 

Two faces have the tech industry, one for the public and one for government agencies.  Of course that has always existed, it was just never talked about openly.

 

[steven36]

1 hour ago, straycat19 said:

 

Of course they will have to have some official documentation from a court, except for exigent circumstances which is described as imminent lost of life or property that requires immediate access to the data, in which no warrant is needed.  Users won't have to approve anything unless they have some personally encrypted data which they will then be required to decrypt.

 

The interesting part of the article is that they will be teaching LEOs how to run forensics on apple devices which previously could not be done by law enforcement because they were locked/encrypted.  While they don't specifically come out and state that fact, it is implicitly implied since if you can't unlock/decrypt it you can't do forensics on it.

 

Two faces have the tech industry, one for the public and one for government agencies.  Of course that has always existed, it was just never talked about openly.

 

Drive Encryption was meant to keep thieves out  from being  able to steal your data it was not meant to be used to hide crimes from the police if they suspect you . Even though many use it to hide stuff that's against the law they just have a false sense of security . All proprietary encryption made in the USA  is fair game ..Just like Microsoft weakened bitlocker for the Government . Even open source encryption is game like they backdoored True Crypt and  they stop making it ..only difference with open source  with updates or  info of a exploit  they will remove it.

 

If they cant  get in it they will just hold you in contempt of court and jail you if a judge tells you to open in it . If you don't do what a judge says  it's just more days you will have to spend in jail. Even talking back to a judge in the wrong way,  can get them to up your time i was in jail with a guy who got 6mths he  told the judge off, he got more 6 mths added to that witch is one year.   I've always just kept my mouth shut and i never had to spend very long in jail before . Even coming to court drunk will get you contempt of court they will lock you up and they will send you to court for your crime latter.

 

They put me in jail before and would not let me make bond, they was afraid i would run and not show up for court lol , they love doing that to people were I live,  by the time I seen the Judge my time was almost served . And knock on wood they never bothered me again in years , because they think i will run if they do lol. I never make it easy on them to get me in court. i did one time long ago but never again. Because not everything they put you in jail for is because you are a criminal . the jails are full of people were life just had a bad turn for them they should not be in there  . Every state have different laws.

 

Some States Are Still Locking Up Way Too Many People

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-16/some-states-are-still-locking-up-way-too-many-peopl

 

And they call this the land of the free what a joke lol.