#Apple Again Comes to Aid of #China's Communist Party Amid Protests

Those speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party are finding themselves without a key method of sharing information under China's censorious regime, thanks to Apple's decision to limit the ability of iPhone users in China to pass files from device to device, bypassing the CCP's censors and surveillance state. 

#AirDrop, the file-sharing feature on iPhones and other Apple devices, has helped protestors in many authoritarian countries evade censorship. That’s because AirDrop relies on direct connections between phones, forming a local network of devices that don’t need the internet to communicate. People can opt into receiving AirDrops from anyone else with an iPhone nearby.

That changed on Nov. 9, when Apple released a new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 16.1.1, to customers worldwide. Rather than listing new features, as it often does, the company simply said, “This update includes bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users.”

Hidden in the update was a change that only applies to iPhones sold in mainland China: AirDrop can only be set to receive messages from everyone for 10 minutes, before switching off. There’s no longer a way to keep the “everyone” setting on permanently on Chinese iPhones. The change, first noticed by Chinese readers of 9to5Mac, doesn’t apply anywhere else.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/11/28/apple-caves-to-ccp-pressure-limits-file-sharing-capability-on-iphones-in-china-n2616445

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-hobbled-crucial-tool-dissent-185100767.html

🇺🇸 #Apple CEO and Covidian Chinese Party collaborator Tim Cook completely ignores questions on assisting the CCP against Chinese dissidents.

"Do you support the Chinese people's right to protest?" asked Fox News.

Tim Cook: *Silence*

"Do you regret restricting #AirDrop access that protesters used to evade surveillance from the Chinese government?"

Tim Cook: *Silence*

"Do you think it's problematic to do business with the Communist Chinese party when they suppress human rights?"

Tim Cook: *Silence*

So Apple now aligns against freedom of speech AND human rights. What would you expect from a company that has exploited Chinese labor for so long?

FYI:
In case you are using #MacOS and you still have not purchased Little Snitch, your next best ( free & easy option ) to stop this process from scanning your #photos is:

https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html

#apple

#iphone #ios #apple

Best advice: Sell it
Second best advice: Change your settings. Don’t give your permission to track you (it will probably iGnore you though)

https://www.reuters.com/technology/russias-fsb-says-us-nsa-penetrated-thousands-apple-phones-spy-plot-2023-06-01/

#iphone #apple #CIA #frontdoor

Triangulation: Did “the NSA” fail to learn the lessons of NSO? | by Bill Marczak | Jun, 2023 | Medium – June 2023

The 1st of June 2023 saw perhaps the most exciting development in the targeted spyware research space in recent memory.

The Russian government’s Federal Security Service (FSB) released a statement indicating that they had detected a hacking campaign by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that compromised “thousands” of Apple iPhones within Russia. The FSB’s statement also, bizarrely, asserted collusion between the NSA and Apple, throwing the veracity of the rest of the FSB’s claims into question. Private sector offensive actors like NSO, QuaDream, and others, have regularly fielded zero-click, zero-day exploits against Apple and Android phones, without any collusion with these companies.

#NSA #Apple #Pegasus #NSO

Facebook approached NSO to buy Pegasus spyware capabilities to monitor certain iOS users, according to a statement filed in a court case by the NSO CEO


WhatsApp vs. NSO Group, et al.
4:19-cv-07123-PJH

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6824735-Declaration-of-Shalev-Hulio-in-Support-of.html

#Pegasus #NSO #Israel #Facebook #Ios #Apple

New Flaw in Apple Devices Led to Spyware Infection, Researchers Say

Researchers at digital watchdog group Citizen Lab said on Thursday they found #spyware they linked to Israeli firm #NSO that exploited a newly discovered flaw in #Apple (AAPL.O) devices.

While inspecting the Apple device of an employee of a Washington-based civil society group last week, Citizen Lab said it found the flaw had been used to infect the device with NSO's Pegasus spyware, it said in a statement.

🔗Source: Reuters

Substack | Twitter | Minds

📡 Follow:
@G3News

Apple and Google confirm governments spy on users through push notifications

#Push #notifications can reveal private information and governments can essentially access this data if they want.

A US senator has asked the Department of Justice to let #Apple and #Google disclose how governments surveil users through push notifications.
Apple says the federal government stopped it from being transparent about the practice.
Google has also acknowledged the senator’s plea and said it is committed to keeping users informed about government requests for push notification data.

Government agencies have been spying on smartphone users through push notifications sent out by apps, a US senator wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice on December 6.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Department of Justice to lift any existing restrictions around discussions of push notification surveillance.

“I write to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to permit Apple and Google to inform their customers and the general public about demands for smartphone app notification records,” Wyden writes in the letter.

He explains that push notifications pass through a kind of digital post office run by the phone’s operating system providers. “Because Apple and Google deliver push notification data, they can be secretly compelled by governments to hand over this information,” the letter says. This could tell governments how users interact with certain apps, give them access to a notification’s complete text, and disclose some unencrypted content.

Wyden moved the DOJ to allow Apple and Google to be transparent about the demands they receive from governments regarding push notification #surveillance.

Meanwhile, the two companies welcomed Wyden’s letter and acknowledged that push notification surveillance has been happening for a while. Apple even said it was not allowed to disclose government requests for push notification data but will start informing users about it now.

“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” Apple said in a statement published by Reuters. “Now that this method has become public, we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.”

Google also acknowledged the issue and said it shared Wyden’s “commitment to keeping users informed about these requests.” Google’s transparency report already documents governmental requests for users’ push notification data.

https://www.androidauthority.com/apple-google-push-notification-surveillance-3392252/

Comments
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38543155
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38555810

#gov #why

#apple #iphone