Betrayal

I’ve been fussing with this post for several days now. I alternate between white hot fury and heartbroken sobbing. I’m speaking, of course, of Apple’s betrayal of the users who believed them when they assured us that they had our backs on privacy and would never spy on us or allow others to do so. The same users who defended them against the naysayers and reminded everyone that the real difference between Android and iPhones was that iPhone owners weren’t being spied on. Here’s the promise:

The promise could not have been more clear. pic.twitter.com/uKlsUvDtY6

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) August 6, 2021

Here’s the reality.

Countless words have already been written on the technical details. There’s good reason to believe that the system’s not as foolproof as Apple claims but, to me, that’s beside the point. Let us assume, arguendo, that Apple’s system is perfect, doesn’t generate false positives, and works just as Apple says. No matter how hard you squint or how eloquent the weasel words, the fact remains that Apple promised over and over that they wouldn’t do something and then they did it anyway.

Sure, fighting child pornography is a worthy goal and no reasonable person could be against it but it’s not a battle I or other iPhone users signed up for. Apple wants to feel virtuous but they want others to pay for their warm feelings with their privacy. Apple doesn’t care if their users want to pay that price; they simply stole our privacy so they could feel good about themselves.

For me, Apple’s betrayal is the important thing in this story but there are also slippery slope concerns. Apple pinky-swears, as Sarah Jamie Lewis puts it, that they absolutely, positively won’t let the system be abused or expanded to detect other behaviors but can we believe them? After all, they’ve already lied to us once. Is there any reason to take them at their word? Here’s four reasons why I don’t think we can:

1. First there’s the principal of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. If they lied to us once, why should we believe anything else they say?
2. Their track record in standing firm against government incursions into privacy are not good even when the stakes are merely economic as their capitulation to the Chinese government has shown.
3. Apple like everyone else in the U.S. has to obey the law. What are they going to do when presented with a court order (or law, for that matter) insisting they scan for other material? Their arguments in the 2016 San Bernadino case obviously don’t apply.
4. The Iron Law of Data Collection.

There’s not much we average iPhone users can do other than write Apple and let them know we’re unhappy. An easy way of doing that is to sign the open letter to Apple protesting their spying. What can Apple do? I don’t need them to apologize or don sackcloth, I just want them to knock it off.