webbs hill studio
what`s with all the encryption?
who uses it and why?
should I be concerned?
is anyone listening?
do I need an Iphone?
can anyone help me?
please?

You know when you buy anything on-line it uses, or certainly should be using, https, so no-one can sit between you and the website and grab your card/paypal details? That relies on secure encryption.

On-line banking relies on secure encryption. Not just the customer using the website, but for transactions between banks, handling payroll bulk processing, everything.

Businesses that need to communicate over the internet, maybe even across national boundaries, generally do so using secure VPNs (virtual private networks). They rely on secure encryption to prevent their data being read by anyone with access to any of the internet it passes through.

If you keep passwords, banking details, business acounts, client records, or anything else that needs to be confidential on a computer that might be stolen then you need to consider securely encrypting it. Windows or OS X file system encryption is built into the operating systems for precisely that reason.

Make secure encryption ineffective or illegal and we're back to the 1970s. Pay bills or buy things by putting a cheque in the post, and all sensitive documents printed out on paper and stored in lockable filing cabinets. In short, everything to do with business that the internet makes possible becomes insecure and not to be relied upon.

So yes, it does matter and you should be concerned.

Though if you're not concerned, please feel free to PM me your bank and credit card details including any user names or passwords required to get full access to your money. I promise nothing untoward will occur. :-)

bitflipper
Apparently, if you're not willing to hand over any and all investigative powers you're a terrorist sympathizer. 

 
Déjà vu?

webbs hill studio
what`s with all the encryption?
who uses it and why?
should I be concerned?
is anyone listening?
do I need an Iphone?
can anyone help me?
please?

It's all explained here:

In a letter addressed to a federal judge in New York, a lawyer for Apple said that federal law enforcement has recently requested that the company access information on 12 other iOS devices. The list is likely not a complete tally of the FBI’s requests, and does not include similar requests from state or local police.
 
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/apple-is-right-the-fbi-wants-to-break-into-lots-of-phones/470607/
 
 
This whole thing has caused me to move from a 4 number passcode to a 6 number and I may move to a custom alphanumeric with auto delete on after 10 failed attempts... and I don't even have anything to hide. It is just the principle of the thing. I have a fingerprint scanner and password protection on my laptop too.
I do not trust the government at ALL. IMO, they do nothing well. The military is capable but the administration holds them back.
 
I said it before, I'll say it again: anyone who trades freedom for security will have neither. Yes, the government will offer us a "Volkswagen" or a promise of "healthcare for all" or "free education" (don't get me started on "so called " education). ...but I digress, I do not trust the government. I do not trust Apple. I do not trust Google. I trust my wife.
We need to think this thing through in the light of history and remember how well the Great Father in Washington keeps his promises... yeah. If we sit back and allow the government to do wrong to others.. one day it may be YOU or me that is abused. The wheel is turning and it wont slow down.
Yeah, I don't trust Apple but I trust them a LOT more than I trust the government.
 
Julien

bitflipper
UPDATE: We seem to be in the minority on this one. A newly-released poll (from the Pew Research Center) shows that a majority of Americans think Apple should cave to the FBI.
 
Included in that majority is our own hometown hero Bill Gates, as well as Level 12 nerd-hero The Woz and anti-government hero Edward Snowden. Three people whose opinions I respect, and they all disagree with me! Unsettling.

Hopefully the constitution will continue to protect the minority from the will of the majority. We are NOT a democracy, never have been. In the 19th century democracy was considered a bad word. Democracy is mob rule, populism.. which seems to be very popular in politics right now but populism is very dangerous, especially when combined with nationalism and socialism... freedom is the loser when these things come to power.
 
Julien

craigb
It's all part of the conditioning before the New World Order.  Be good little sheep.

Heck, even a Supreme Court judge wrote "A Nation of Sheep", no?
 
I think that most folks tend to distrust big business, and Apple is one of those ... and eventually, they should win, but they have to do better to help the government. I think, if they had not said anything, and the government had kept their mouth shut, no one would know anything, and be the better or worse for it.
 
But, I'm not sure I like the government doing what they did, but what do you think the government does in other countries? The owners of such a company would never make Lords and get to the big banana, and in many other places in the world the company would be burned down by the guns and what not.
 
Can you imagine that in Russia? Or Japan?
 
Yeah ... right!