[projectvrm] Apple's iOS 8 privacy changes

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Ars Technica: 
<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/apple-expands-data-encryption-under-ios-8-making-handover-to-cops-moot/>

The headline frames the story around the inability of cops (or thieves) to 
get at the contents of your phone. But the story Apple tells is different:

> "On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages 
> (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, 
> notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode," the 
> company wrote on its website Wednesday evening. "Unlike our competitors, 
> Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So 
> it's not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for 
> the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8."
> 
> Apple did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
> 
> In an open letter also published Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook took a 
> direct swipe at Google, its primary mobile competitor.
> 
> "Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We 
> don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to 
> sell to advertisers," he wrote. "We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you 
> store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your 
> messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are 
> designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple."

Here is the letter: <http://www.apple.com/privacy/>. Continuing from the 
quote above,

> One very small part of our business does serve advertisers, and that’s iAd. 
> We built an advertising network because some app developers depend on that 
> business model, and we want to support them as well as a free iTunes Radio 
> service. iAd sticks to the same privacy policy that applies to every other 
> Apple product. It doesn’t get data from Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, 
> iMessage, your call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail, 
> and you can always just opt out altogether.
> 
> Finally, I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any 
> government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our 
> products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And 
> we never will.
> 
> Our commitment to protecting your privacy comes from a deep respect for our 
> customers. We know that your trust doesn’t come easy. That’s why we have 
> and always will work as hard as we can to earn and keep it.

A bit of news in that second paragraph. Tim Cook is saying that its 
competitors have capitulated, while Apple has not.

But the main thing is that in its privacy policy, at least, Apple supports 
customer independence. And that's a VRooMy thing.

(Of course, it's still a walled garden in other ways. Just giving credit 
where due.)

Doc