Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: “Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it.” This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don’t.
What Apple is saying :
– We collect all sort of personal/private information which also interest some government agencies. Despite being an actual product manufacturer, we are also data harvesting, like Google, FB…
– We decide what to share with governments, but we don’t
really obey them, because Apple, like others, considers that that information is best in the hands of Apple employees than in an inexploitable/anonymized form or, instead, freely accessible by the NSA/CIA/FBI… As a large corporation, we consider, of course, being above all governments and laws.
– Of course, the NSA may be spying the cables going to Apple servers, or some Apple employees are actually NSA agents.
But I’m just paranoïd.
Don’t
And they all say the same, almost word for word… like the nsa gave them a statement to read that would cover them legally…
…amazing that americans couldn’t give a shit about the nsa spying on others, just on them… maybe now they no what it’s like for the rest of the world, and why people hate amercia.
“maybe now they no what it’s like for the rest of the world, and why people hate amercia”
Because intelligence agencies in the rest of the world are not interested in spying people, right?
Getting as much info as possible is more or less the job of any such agency: the NSA is probably more efficient and has more money to spend than many, but it doesn’t change the base concept.
Now, as a world citizen, one can try to fight data collection by intelligence agencies, but please, don’t be naive or hypocrite: all this PRISM thing is neither new nor unexpected.
The only difference between the NSA or CIA and the Mossad or the Ministry of State Security or any other major intelligence agency is that public opinion could actually impact what US agencies are doing.
So you hate US because it is the only “big” country giving enough freedom to freely talk about such issue.
And I am not a US citizen, BTW: I am from Switzerland and I am sure the swiss Federal Intelligence Service is inefficient enough to know almost nothing about everybody
Excuse me dear Sir, are you sure people are THAT free to talk about everything ? Unions are barely legal over there, and if freedom of speech was THAT prevalent for the so-called democracy, WikiLeaks would have had no reasons to even exists and Ralph Nader would be President.
Yet, while the SFIS is inefficient, you were not struck by planes in buildings. And the supposed effective intelligence, while being aware, had done nothing (for still unknown and unclear reasons).
This is just pragmatic ascertainments. Nothing against the US. But the US believes the whole world is against them and are on their defensive stance.
Kochise
“But the US believes the whole world is against them and are on their defensive stance.”
Which is basically the same for all big countries, especially from the point of view of intelligence agencies because, well, it is their job to be paranoid. And as you said it yourself, the planes did strike US, not Switzerland: US may have at least some good reasons to be paranoid.
I do not support them: it is just something obvious to me and I think people who are surprised by PRISM or whatever “scandal” are either naive or hypocrite. And I have a problem with hypocrites
Shure, just draw the “planes struck highrise buildings”-card. (yet again)…
Sorry… That was so last decade. I feel sorry for those who have lost relatives that day. Anyway…
If you really want to be a succesfull terrorist, then dont fucking attack United States of America. (wich obviously is no country, but an republic to clear that up).
If you attack USA, you get one hell of a bull-dog on you’r ass. So those terrorists have been without brain.
To be a succesful terrorist today, you attack a small pro-us state, and then you use words to scare the living crap out of american citizen’s. That way, you avoid getting the big system on you’r back.
To say in another way… Terrorists have, with success, created a paranoid system that spies on native citizen’s.
And to wrap it up. It appears that the 9/11-card is valid in an argument yet again. Depending on how you see and how you turn the question.
Given the overdrive of stupidity, highlighted by the inability to spell correctly basic words or grasp equally basic concepts… I’ll go ahead and assume that your post is basically an intricate act of performance art.
Edited 2013-06-19 23:30 UTC
If it is so obvious then why a couple years ago people talking about mass surveillance were called conspiracy theorists? Why the person revealing such well known facts is labeled a traitor? Why other governments are either demanding explanations or using the fact as an excuse to tighten their own surveillance? What differs NSA from Stasi?
It is not normal that the government is indiscriminately spying on citizens. Every single country that implemented such a system became a tyranny. If not immediately, then after several elections.
Back to the article – these disclaimers are *not* about PRISM. They are about a well known legal process of collecting information. Google has been disclosing information about such requests for years now. The whole point of PRISM was that it did not need such a process and it was (still is?) classified – the companies are not allowed to mention it, just like they were not allowed to do it before.
Apple itself rapes users privacy like a pro [sic!], so it doesn’t matter if it gives that data to other parties or not.
We’d love some examples of that.
Whether people hate the USA or Apple (or whatever I guess), it is always the same story: they hate it so they turn any piece of news into another reason to hate it even more and if necessary they invent “facts”.
I would hate to be a hater
Then stories like faked anthrax, no found weapons of mass destruction, civilians killed by US troopers, citizens reviewed under “Prism”, etc… arise to consolidate the claims.
There is no even needs of conspiracy theory or aliens coming for outa space, US if already one of a crazed country that copied much of its running from USSR : hidden secretive agencies, brain washing news, favoring industrial and military oligarchy, …
Kochise
This might mean something coming from a true peace-loving country, but that certainly isn’t France. Amazing how you French love to protest what others are doing, even after the terrible things you did with colonialism, the imperialism of Napoleon, the depredations of Robespierre, persecution of the Roma, etc., etc. You think you’re better than us? Think again.
Please, rewind back to prehistorical ages and point out that French cavemen were not gentlemen !
Never said France is innocent, but it does not take the Captain America stance.
Please consider that France should have served as an example of what not to follow : colonialism, you had segregation ; putting puppet government, you had Pinochet vs. Allende ; etc.
Sure you gone on the moon to blast your chest like a wild gorilla on hormones, we have national health care, because… we cares ! You ARE the one living on old references.
Kochise
Edited 2013-06-19 18:07 UTC
That’s all you got? And some idiots modded you up for that? The fact is it’s not old news. France is still not afraid to flex its military machine around the world, and as you keep proving, you’re not shy about lecturing us. Just like so many of you having been doing since the Iraq war. You have no moral high ground to stand on, but you pretend like you do. You just have short memories over there. “We don’t do the really bad stuff anymore so it’s ok.”
Someone has to stop the mess first. We did. Thanks to Pdt Chirac who refused to go on, and on, and on.
Kochise
… oddly enough the “easily” concerned follow similarly predictive patterns as well.
What would be the unfolding of PRISM to American software/hardware companies? I mean, I suppose that the distrust has increased even between USA and its close allies. We are more and more dependent on system with communication tech gears on all levels and on all places, from facilities to personal data, and this project has a big potential to be used to gather information about tech in development under other countries that would have economical impact.
Foreign governments (and enterprises) would start to avoid, as much as possible, tech gear from American companies and would also disincentive their citizens to use USA gadgets. More than everything else, I suppose that is what is getting Apple, Google, Microsoft and others to put out official statements, fear of losing sales, specially on foreign countries.
Edited 2013-06-19 21:55 UTC