Apple’s blunder and why the tech industry needs to look at itself in the mirror
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Apple’s blunder and why the tech industry needs to look at itself in the mirror

Imagine if the government required you to have a combination lock on your door and to give it the key. It would create security and privacy risks for you and your family. This is what could happen if we required the technology industry to add back doors to its software and devices.  Hackers, criminals, and foreign governments could crack the code and abuse it. This is what the technology industry is rightfully rallying against.

But in trying to prevent government intrusion, Apple picked the wrong fight. It has set off a chain of events that will create a public relations backlash and cause Congress to pass new legislation which won’t be well thought out. This will be a setback for privacy. As well, Apple has brought to light the deficiencies of the technology industry itself—which lives in a glass house and needs to clean up its act.

Apple's decision to fight a court order to help federal authorities unlock the iPhone used by one of the terrorists who killed 14 people and injured 22 in San Bernardino has certainly gained it support within Silicon Valley.  But it has become a target of populist campaigns by Donald Trump and others. This battle isn’t going to be portrayed as being about encryption and back doors; it is going to center on protection of data of murderous terrorists. Other than Silicon Valley purists, few will side with Apple on this. 

The public desperately want protection from terrorists, foreign governments, and hackers. After 9/11, Americans accepted certain limits on civil liberties—which protect their privacy yet provide the government with enough information to be effective at its job. People clearly don’t care so much about encryption and privacy because they use the deeply flawed technologies being offered by the tech industry.

Big Brother would be envious of the surveillance capabilities of Google and Apple. They read our emails before we do and keep track of our searches; their mobile devices log our movements and activities; the apps that we download commonly trick us into giving them our contact lists and other personal data; our smartphones have the ability to turn our cameras and microphones on without us being aware that this has happened.  

Tech companies want to learn all they can about us so that they can market more products and services to us—and sell our data to others. They believe that they own our data and can use it in any way they like. These companies are not required to tell consumers what information they are gathering or how they will protect it. They keep us in the dark while profiting from us. When our data is hacked, they simply plead ignorance. In other industries, product manufacturers would be held liable for the safety and security of their products. Yet tech seems to get a free ride; its hacked customers take the blame.

We should have ownership of our own data and receive royalties from any use that we permit. And we should take the developers of the flawed operating systems and apps to task for their lax security.

Sadly, things are only going to get worse. The next big technology, the Internet of Things, will embed sensors in our appliances, electronic devices, and our clothing. These will be connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or mobile-phone technology. They will gather extensive data about us and upload it to central storage facilities managed by technology companies. Google’s Nest home thermostat already monitors our daily movements to optimize the temperature in our homes. In the process, Google learns all about our lifestyles and habits. Our smart TV’s will watch us to see if we want to change channels—and learn which shows we like and how attentively we watch them. Our refrigerator will keep track of what we eat so it can order more food—and know our dietary weaknesses.

This is bad enough, but the bigger problem is that these devices aren’t secure. Children’s toys and cars have already been hacked. Our TV sets and medical devices will also be. Because they don’t face enough of a liability, device manufacturers don’t feel obliged to invest the time, money and effort necessary to secure their devices.  It is cheaper for them to apologize and do product recalls than to build ultra-secure products. 

So it is great to see Apple and Google standing up for consumer rights. But they need to provide us with the same protections they are demanding from the government.

For more, follow me on Twitter: @wadhwa or visit my website: www.wadhwa.com

Joyce M Brown Eda

Bookkeeper/ Tax Consultant Banking Management/Operation 90210

8y

If those had been your loved ones that had been killed in San Bernadino would you guys feel the same way?. Everyone in this country always defend their rights to privacy that whats sooooooooo important until the tables turn,and your family becomes the victim.

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Diana Joy

Author/Editor, Psychology Professor, Sole Proprietor of Welcome Counseling and Education Services, Licensed Counselor

8y

Really? If you are not doing anything wrong you have no reason not to open every moment and every communication in your life to scrutiny? Who are these perfect paragon of virtue? Are they sure the powers that be will always define right and wrong as they do? Do all human behaviors fit in either the wrong bucket or the right bucket? Don't we already know that there are people and insitutions that will reframe innocuous information about us and use it against us? How many times have we ourselves misjudged someone based on data misinterpreted or out of context? How many historical examples do we need of the relationship between totalitarianism and lack of citizen privacy? Apple's position on this matter, and the outcomes from it, mark a turning point in our future with technology. I think it was the government's choice to use this specific case in an attempt to sabotage any company's ability to protect our right to privacy. A very narcissistic choice that does not take into consideration that a back door can let in anyone, anywhere in the world, and stop movements for peace, freedom, and humane governance as easily as help law enforcement in pursuit of criminals. (I really wish we would stop calling them terrorists like they are somehow more special than other muderers, thieves, drug dealers, and pimps. Criminals puts a different spin on it that is truthful and not so glamorous for recruiting more criminals.)

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Todd L.

Technical Solutions Engineer at Knowtion, Inc.

8y

"After 9/11, Americans accepted certain limits on civil liberties". Really Mr. Wadhwa? Who??? Who consented to that? I know I didn't. I'd rather experience a dozen 9/11's per year than one hour under Saddam Hussein's regime. There was nearly no crime in Iraq under Saddam. But there was also no liberty, no freedom of speech, no security in your persons or possessions, etc. The U.S. Constitution never guaranteed the American people safety. It guaranteed them liberty. Anyone who values safety over liberty should really relocate to another country. I'm willing to bet they would be back very quickly after experiencing "safety" first-hand.

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Adam Pressman, Business Builder

Capital Formation | Media Management | Fundraising Strategy | Consulting | FinTech | Developmental Coach

8y

I disagree that Apple picked the fight. Particularly as their history has been relatively cooperative with USG surveillance as we all learned from Mr. Snowden. No better case to prove Franklin's genius, "those who trade a little liberty for a little security deserve neither liberty nor security." I remember the TWA 800 crash, in response to a perceived terrorist involvement, the Clinton Administration (according to Richard Clarke who said they wanted to "do something...anything.") required we all must show ID to get on a plane. Now that we know that plane crashed because of a fuel accident do the ID requirements go away? Did that stop the 911 terrorists all of whom had legal Virginia DLs? Once the FBI has Apples monkey wrench and gets into the phone (they could have gotten into if they'd properly secured the phone...the killer didn't set the password the FBI wants to crack) and they promise to "never use it again" will they? How will they keep the Chinese from using the same tool as we learned the PRA routinely has its way with the most classified records of Americans with security clearances? The FBI is using this horrifying incident to panic people into supporting their desire to make it easier to abuse privacy (as we already have proof they do). It will make it harder on Apple, harder on those of us who try to do the right thing and protect our data from misuse by anyone and easier on bad guys who repeatedly pwn the Feds without making anyone a bit safer.

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