Surveillance : Law enforcement: Apple iOS 8 software would hinder efforts to keep public safety

With its new iOS 8 operating software, Apple is making it more difficult for law enforcement to engage in surveillance of users of iOS8 smartphones. Apple has announced that photos, e-mail, contacts, and other personal information will now be encrypted, using the user’s very own passwords — meaning that Apple will no longer be able to respond to government warrants for the extraction of data.

Logo of Apple's iOS8 // Source: pakhshjanebi.ir

With its new iOS 8 operating software, Apple is making it more difficult for law enforcement to engage in surveillance of users of iOS8 smartphones..

As San Jose Mercury News reports, Apple has announced that photos, e-mail, contacts, and other personal information will now be encrypted, using the user’s very own passwords — meaning that Apple will no longer be able to respond to government warrants for the extraction of data. Google announced that the same will be true of upcoming version of its Android phone software.

The move is Apple’s way of emphasizing its commitment to privacy and distance itself from the recent National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program revelations.

“There will come a day — well, it comes every day in this business — when it will matter a great, great deal to the lives of people of all kinds that we be able, with judicial authorization, gain access to a kidnapper’s or a terrorist’s or a criminal’s device,” said Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director James Comey. “I’d hate to have people look at me and say, ‘Well, how come you can’t save this kid?”

Other officials, such as Officer Albie Esparza, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department, offered a more considerate response.

“It does make it challenging. But we’re not in the business of dictating policy for private companies,” she said, “Although it could impact investigations, there are other ways to obtain information.”

Apple will still be able to share any data that users back up to Internet-based iCloud accounts, and phone carriers can also reveal call logs and other information stored in cell phone towers.

In a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple wants to sell devices and not ads, making the impetus for limiting data collection their priority with customers.

Others, however, argue that the move is Apple’s latest effort to distance itself from possible criminal investigations involving its complicity with theNSA, according to the cache of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden last year.

Despite the increased controversy and possible litigation, for the time being, many argue, the public at large is the biggest winner since users’ data will be safer following the shift.

“If you create an access point, both good guys and bad guys can use it,” said Bruce Schneier, a computer security and privacy expert.

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