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Tim Cook Holds Firm On iMessage Security: It’s Encrypted, And We Don’t Have A
Key
Posted Sep 15, 2014 by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden)
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[screen-shot-2014-09-16-at-00-41-54.png?w=738]
As Apple continues to come under some attack for how it handles iCloud
security, the company’s CEO Tim Cook is holding firm on the company’s
priorities when it comes to data protection.
In part 2 of an interview with Charlie Rose, airing on PBS tonight,
Cook is adamant that Apple is not in the business of collecting data,
but rather selling hardware, and, as such, it puts data privacy as a
priority. “We’re not reading your email. We’re not reading your
iMessage,” Cook said. “If the government laid a subpoena to get
iMessages, we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have a key.
And so it’s sort of — the door is closed.”
The comments sit not just as a defense of Apple in the wake of the
celebrity iCloud selfie scandal, where racy photographs were obtained
by malicious, phishing hackers and then distributed online (Apple
plainly denied a security breach); but they are also a reiteration of
an argument Apple first brought up a year ago, when the company came
out with its original defense of the security of its iMessage messaging
platform in the wake of NSA revelations — a position that was
questioned and debunked by some security researchers.
Cook’s comments are also something of an indirect snub to Google, the
search and Android giant that Cook flat-out called Apple’s biggest
competition in the first part of his Rose interview.
Here are Cook’s remarks in full in response to Rose’s comment about how
some people feel like “companies like Google” are in possession of too
much information, some of it personal.
We take a very different view of this than a lot of other companies
have. Our view is, when we design a new service, we try not to
collect data. So we’re not reading your email. We’re not reading
your iMessage. If the government laid a subpoena to get iMessages,
we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have a key. And so
it’s sort of, the door is closed. But our business Charlie, is based
on selling these [pointing to devices]. Our business is not based on
having information about you. You’re not our product. Our product
are these, and this watch, and Macs and so forth. And so we run a
very different company. I think everyone has to ask, how do
companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they’re making
money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a
right to be worried. And you should really understand what’s
happening to that data. And companies I think should be very
transparent about it.
He also touched on how this relates to new products that Apple is
launching — specifically its e-commerce effort, Apple Pay:
From our point of view, you can see what we’re doing on the credit
card thing. We don’t want it. We’re not in that business. I’m
offended by lots of it. And so, I think people have a right to
privacy.
He also went back to how Apple has handled and would respond to data
requests from organizations like the NSA, maintaining that Apple would
“never allow” backdoor access to its servers. Cook’s position is that
questions of data privacy will be a “key topic over the next year or
so.”
And we’ll reach higher and higher levels of urgency as more and more
incidents happen. I think that the, for us, in the Snowden thing,
just to go along on that for just a moment. What we wanted, was, we
wanted instantly to be totally transparent because there were rumors
and things being written in the press that people had backdoors to
our servers. None of that is true, zero. We would never allow that
to happen. They would have to cart us out in a box before we would
do that. It’s, if we ever get information, and we finally got an
agreement from the administration to release how many times we had
national security orders on Apple. And in a six month period, and we
had to release a range, because they won’t let us say the exact
number, it’s between zero and 250. That’s the lowest number you can
quote. Zero to 250.
An excerpt from the interview is below:
IFRAME:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bmm5faI_mLo?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=
2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
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CrunchBase
* Apple
+ Founded 1976
+ Overview Apple is a multinational corporation that designs,
manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media
devices, personal computers, portable digital music players,
and sells a variety of related software, services,
peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital
content and applications. Apple provides many products and
services, including iPhone; iPad; iPod; Mac; iPod; Apple TV; …
+ Location Cupertino, CA
+ Categories Hardware + Software, Consumer Electronics,
Computers, Electronics, Retail
+ Website http://www.apple.com
+ Full profile for Apple
* Timothy Cook
+ Bio Timothy Cook is Apple's CEO. He took over from Steve Jobs
on 25 August 2011. In his previous position as COO, Cook was
responsible for all of the company's worldwide sales and
operations, including end-to-end management of Apple's supply
chain, sales activities, and service and support in all
markets and countries. He also headed Apple's Macintosh
division and played a key role in the continued …
+ Full profile for Timothy Cook
* Charlie Rose
+ Bio Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and
journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in
1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series
Bill Moyers' International Report. He currently hosts the
Charlie Rose Show, where he has developed a reputation as a
skilled interviewer.
+ Full profile for Charlie Rose
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