109.1k sats \ 43 comments \ @davidw 3 Mar privacy

I'm hoping we can get another detailed discussion going around Apple's software and discuss in particular whether they have moved forward or backwards consumer ~privacy in recent years.

Here are some Stacker thoughts on SN regarding Apple's prior decisions:

Love It Or Hate it

I've recently come to the conclusion, Apple is like marmite (or vegemite). For those not aware of these products in the UK & Australia, there is a huge split in terms of whether a 'spreadable yeast' tastes good or bad on toasted bread. Yes, it's actually a thing!

I suspect the same divisiveness exists here on SN regarding Apple. Their laptops are well loved by the developer community, but you either love the brand or you hate it. And I must admit also my tastes are changing somewhat.

In the years ahead, Apple might choose to run some similar advertising campaign to the video commercial from the Marmite (Unilever) team in 2013. Especially if they out-grow their 'greenwashing' mother-nature messaging, to appeal to their hardcore fans.

Love or hate Apple - let's hear why in the comments below.

Love It ✅

`1. Great Hardware`

First off, I am still an Apple user and I think it's absolutely clear that they make some of the best hardware in the world. Yes, everything is locked-down and not at all open, but they have been a huge success story of the past 20 years, the likes of which we cannot ignore. Particularly on Mac.

For instance in 2024 battery performance on Macbooks is still completely unrivalled. Neither has any manufacturer seemingly been able to match the snappiness of their trackpad in recent years. Those are 2 very specific characteristics, but they are both items users depend on from almost every use.

The competition's computers may pack a similar punch in terms of compute or memory performance, and there will of course be better windows devices for gaming, but Apple does otherwise offer the complete laptop package for 'creatives'. Their laptops are well-loved by the dev & creative community as a whole, given the performance and 'swooshiness' of various apps on their devices. We cannot ignore that alternative manufacturers need to up their game here, but given rumours surrounding Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chips, we might soon have some more capable alternatives even if the jury is still out on thermal performance.

Macbook for now remains the most capable laptop. The iPhone today is extremely comparable to other competing devices. Inferior in many aspects. For mobile hardware, there's very little reason why we shouldn't all pivot to Android to run GrapheneOS or Calyx. Another post will be dropping on that soon, something we can together here in the coming weeks together (if you're interested)! For Macbook addicts, we can still partition Linux on MacOS, more on that in a future post too...

`2. Lockdown Mode`

No other big technology company has provided such a significant set of security tools for use cases like journalism or politics. Apple launched a suite of options in 2022, attempting to protect devices against "extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyber attacks". Lockdown Mode is available to anyone wishing to toggle it on, on the latest OS software - be it Mac, iPhone, iPad or Watch. Doing so will block all calls, messaging attachments, photo metadata and drastically limit the code that can be run in browsers.

Apple do seem to be trying to give customers more choices and are moving forward the industry by implementing these ideas of privacy-preserving technology. Even if it prevents people from finding open-source alternatives, we will likely see far more privacy tools to come in the future because of initiatives like 'Lockdown Mode'. Developers and business pay attention to what Apple is building and so it may not be long before we see something similar on Linux or Android operating systems in the near future. We will also likely see it's capabilities improve, with each OS update to come.

I posted about some positive privacy attitudes here on SN 2 months ago. People are without doubt becoming more privacy conscious. Apple is clearly responding to consumer's growing demand for such solutions, unlike any other company under the 'big tech' umbrella right now. They are advertising about privacy and normalising it as a value-add. So some kudos is deserved here.

`3. Advertising Privacy`

Apple is the biggest brand currently shouting-about and recognising privacy as a differentiating feature. They are helping convey to the world that it's something for the masses to be conscious & careful about. They are changing consumer behaviour.

Previously Apple data in iCloud had been "encrypted" but with the encryption keys in Apple's data centre or Apple's hands. The logic being, Apple could decrypt your data in the event of data loss. At least that is how they justified it.

More recently however, iCloud is gaining traction for encrypted cloud data too or 'Advanced Data Protection' as the marketing gurus call it. On the section for end-to-end encryption on the 'Advanced Data Protection page':

Starting with iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 and macOS 13.1, you can choose to enable Advanced Data Protection to protect the vast majority of your iCloud data, even in the case of a data breach in the cloud. With Advanced Data Protection, the number of data categories that use end-to-end encryption rises to 25 and includes your iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more.

End-to-end encrypted data can be decrypted only on your trusted devices where you’re signed in with your Apple ID. No one else can access your end-to-end encrypted data — not even Apple — and this data remains secure even in the case of a data breach in the cloud.

Whilst this is a welcome change, it does NOT necessarily mean by using an Apple device and storing your data there that you are 'safe' from prying eyes. Firstly, you need to pay Apple more money on an ongoing basis, to prevent access. And secondly, exploits have been used for years to get data off iPhone and directly off macOS devices. Despite Apple stating here that:

Apple has never created a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services. We have also never allowed any government direct access to Apple servers. And we never will.

Hate It ❌

1. `Excessively Expensive`

Apple may make good products but my goodness they are expensive. The cost of a standard ‌iPhone 15‌ are estimated at $423, the iPhone 15‌ Plus at $442 and the iPhone 15 Pro‌ at $523. That's a markup of 89%, 126% & 129% respectively vs current RRP for what is now a commodity item. Their fast Macbook charger, god forbid should you ever need to buy a replacement costs $149. $49 for the cable alone. It's incredible how this practice has been normalised for the industry.

Arguably we've been subsidising Apple for some time, by them not having a hugely significant offering in the advert industry. Instead, selling us USB-C to Lightning cables for $29 with a shelf-life of 2 years. Apple has not needed to monetise their users via advertising to extreme ends like Google and Facebook have, since they are SO profitable from both their hardware products and App Store. With that in mind, we may struggle to find a better example than Apple, that embodies the spirit of the word fiat, perhaps with the exception of Balenciaga.

`2. Walled Garden`

When you think of anti-trust these days, one of the first brands that comes to mind is also Apple. Particularly, as of today US and EU authorities are on the verge of delivering the verdict of a new investigation into Apple, regarding the iPhone, its App Store & payments system being uncompetitive. It will likely see the company hit with a new record fine, given that Uncle Sam and his friend are short of a few pennies these days. We may also see new requirements to open-up and allow apps to be side-loaded, which may in actual fact be a bonus for us bitcoiners. Apple recently confirmed their decision to retain PWA support, which as @k00b suspects could actually be a negotiating ploy for these anti-trust cases:

It's possible they never planned to remove it to begin with. Making a ridiculous offer you intend to back out of can make counterparties feel like you're compromising more than you are.

In other prior moves, let us not forget either, that Apple in the interests of privacy removed the ability for mobile apps to access the IMEI numbers on devices.

They did so in the name of privacy, whilst pushing and providing greater targeting than their competitions via their own advertising product. Allowing advertisers to target based on age, gender, location & interests (app categories). They prevented cookies from firing for third parties in browser, whilst still collecting device usage information for themselves. They increasingly make it more difficult for people to install a simple app onto MacOS, be it open-source or from a trusted source, whilst being judge and jury for app approvals all whilst collecting their 30% tax their inside the App Store. They rolled-out AirTags in a supposedly private manner, only for them to become a terrible innovation and tool of choice for victims of stalkers and surveillance.

We talked about the benefits of 'Lockdown Mode' earlier but the cynic in me does believe this is the hook that maintains people dependent upon Apple, to require the 'latest and safest' software and hardware upgrades. With more barriers to untangle themselves from the web of 'protectionist' features.

`3. Government Access x3`

A. Government Influence

There are known links between Western Governments and companies like Microsoft, Palantir and Google for example. Apple to a lesser extent, but at times it has felt like Apple is actively introducing features that Governments wants them to. Take for example automatic software updates, on-device image & file scanning for 'child protection' and 'contact tracing' to name a few.

B. Government Backdoors

We also know that recently a vulnerability had existed on Apple devices for quite some time and if you are interested in the more technical aspects of that, this article is worth a read. It was also discussed in detail on the Security Now podcast:

The vulnerability was there with subtle changes through 5 generations of chips. That doesn’t feel like a mistake; and there are far more straightforward means for debugging. No one hash-signs a packet to be written by DMA into memory while debugging. That makes no sense.

Also, the fact that its use is guarded by a secret hash reveals and proves that it was intended to be enabled and present in the wild. The hash forms a secret key that explicitly allows this to exist safely and without fear of malicious exploitation without the explicit knowledge of the hash function. This is a crucial point that I want to be certain everyone appreciates. This was clearly meant to be active in the wild with its abuse being quite well protected by a well-kept secret.

Somewhere, people within Apple knew of this back-door. They knew that this backdoor was present and they knew how to access it. And somehow that secret escaped from Apple’s control.

C. Government Requests

More recently, Apple has been making a pivot to storing more data on device, as people's perception is that it is much more secure there. As we will see, this a natural reaction to guard itself against the spotlight and growing consumer dissatisfaction with increasing requests from Governments, as well as more code vulnerabilities. With Apple complying in roughly 9 out of 10 cases. The United States 🇺🇸 have been increasingly requesting account information stored in Apple iCloud:

There is a clear increasing upwards trend there for 🇺🇸, but what is interesting is that when looking at the 2nd chart below; China 🇨🇳 is requesting far more on-device information, rather than account information these days. This is a big distinction vs 2017, when both spiked. This is very speculative here, and no one else I am aware has flagged this, but this may lend itself to the view that China has better tools/leverage to get information off of Apple devices without user knowledge:

Note: Both of these charts have been created using data from Apple's Transparency Report. It does not consider any other access that these Governments have privilege to or visibility of. The charts log the 'worst' 9 offending countries by units requested. Both charts exclude Poland, given that their requests for devices skewed the chart significantly around a similar time of the 'wiretapping scandal' in 2014: Poland 🇵🇱 requested a staggering 500,000 device IDs in the second half of 2014.

`4. Apple's Excessive Data Collection`

In the aggregate, look at the types of information that Apple still "needs to" collect about you on their privacy policy. There is perhaps an argument to say that they need to have most of this, to provide the products and services they do today. However it is still a conscious decision, and the facts remain that it is something they have yet to rein-in or reduce to date.

Personal Data Apple Collects from You:

Account Information. Your Apple ID and related account details, including email address, devices registered, account status, and age
Device Information. Data from which your device could be identified, such as device serial number, or about your device, such as browser type
Contact Information. Data such as name, email address, physical address, phone number, or other contact information
Payment Information. Data about your billing address and method of payment, such as bank details, credit, debit, or other payment card information
Transaction Information. Data about purchases of Apple products and services or transactions facilitated by Apple, including purchases on Apple platforms
Fraud Prevention Information. Data used to help identify and prevent fraud, including a device trust score
Usage Data. Data about your activity on and use of our offerings, such as app launches within our services, including browsing history; search history; product interaction; crash data, performance and other diagnostic data; and other usage data
Location Information. Precise location only to support services such as Find My or where you agree for region-specific services, and coarse location
Health Information. Data relating to the health status of an individual, including data related to one’s physical or mental health or condition. Personal health data also includes data that can be used to make inferences about or detect the health status of an individual. If you participate in a study using an Apple Health Research Study app, the policy governing the privacy of your personal data is described in the Apple Health Study Apps Privacy Policy.
Fitness Information. Details relating to your fitness and exercise information where you choose to share them
Financial Information. Details including salary, income, and assets information where collected, and information related to Apple-branded financial offerings
Government ID Data. In certain jurisdictions, we may ask for a government-issued ID in limited circumstances, including when setting up a wireless account and activating your device, for the purpose of extending commercial credit, managing reservations, or as required by law
Other Information You Provide to Us. Details such as the content of your communications with Apple, including interactions with customer support and contacts through social media channels

Personal Data Apple Receives from Other Sources

Individuals. Apple may collect data about you from other individuals — for example, if that individual has sent you a product or gift card, invited you to participate in an Apple service or forum, or shared content with you.
At Your Direction. You may direct other individuals or third parties to share data with Apple. For example, you may direct your mobile carrier to share data about your carrier account with Apple for account activation, or for your loyalty program to share information about your participation so that you can earn rewards for Apple purchases.
Apple Partners. We may also validate the information you provide — for example, when creating an Apple ID, with a third party for security, and for "fraud-prevention purposes".

So, what am I doing? 🤔

Switch to GrapheneOS as daily driver. Stripped-back iPhone for legacy fiat/banking guff.
Partitioning Macbook to run Fedora Asahi - gradually move across work before going all-in.
Wiped MacOS from Mac Mini to run as a secondary node.
Migrating & redirecting all email accounts from Apple (look-out for upcoming ~privacy challenges on this).
Consider a non-Apple desktop as daily driver by 2025, for more mindful use and better posture, in a new citadel setup.

Upcoming Privacy Challenges 🍺

Sunday 10th March - MacOS > Fedora Asahi Linux install on partition Sunday 24th March - iPhone > GrapheneOS Setup

I had previously planned for these challenges in January but if you're interested in the GrapheneOS switch - find a way to purchase a second-hand Pixel device in cash these next 2 weeks.

Cowboy tip 🤠 Subscribe to these posts (by clicking the ... dots on the profile page) if you'd like to be notified when these drop and we'll then do the challenges together!

Love or hate Apple? Discuss... 🗯️

Let's talk about their products like phones, laptops, watches, software, cloud storage & more. Golden Delicious or a Rotten Empire, what do the plebs think about Apple ~privacy?

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858 sats \ 3 replies \ @knorozov 3 Mar

Look, for grandma and normies it's great, but I don't get why some devs in bitcoin / sovereign computing still take that crap serious.

I once bought an apple laptop, it didn't offer me the setting that closing the lid would not suspend the computer. ..

Similar experience with iphone:

WIFI OFF!!

Ok, but when I feel like it, I switch it on again.

I don't need a nanny when I use my device.

25 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

Can’t disagree with that.

The “we know better than you” mentality is quite condescending for most of us. Like forcing you into 6 clicks to open app you downloaded by yourself. Like the ‘you should backup your data to iCloud’, like ‘you should let us scan your photos for child abuse’. And these are very intelligent people working at these businesses. Some of their decision making is really poor.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @knorozov 3 Mar

They could and should make an opt out option for this bs. Advanced mode or something.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 3 Mar

Fair enough

722 sats \ 3 replies \ @zuspotirko 3 Mar

Whatever you think - make peace with the idea that any design decision Apple makes will ripple through the industry.

It happened with the headphone jack, the notch, the whole concept of how smartphones should look... It will shape VR and on-device AI as well.

230 sats \ 1 reply \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 3 Mar

Going back even further, they released the iMac in 1998 and everyone said the decision to release a computer without a floppy drive and with USB instead of all the old connections was terrible. Soon it became the norm and USB was everywhere.

(Unlike floppy drives, I miss headphone jacks, though.)

87 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

There’s a dongle for that…

283 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

Such a great point. Hopefully that means more companies shouting about privacy tech.

I wonder how long they can keep that up however. At some point by the law of averages they have to be too late to a market.

Historically they have a great track record of launching the right iteration of a product at the right time. Once it has enough traction & interest.

427 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 3 Mar

Fantastic job. Thanks for doing all this work. Since you posted the link to my post, you know where I stand, but my opinion is really idealogical and a bit superficial. You dig deep. I'm happy to see a little love for Graphene. I'm typing this on my Pixel now. I wonder whether any devs are giving up their Macs in real numbers?

216 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

Your article was top of the pops for a reason 🙌

I wonder whether any devs are giving up their Macs in real numbers?

I doubt it. At this time. The developer MacBook experience is still so smooth and convenient to this day. Going to take some pretty bad press it feels to reverse that trend. Or for ~opensource to out-compete on user experience. Both of which seem somewhat unlikely for the next 18 months at least.

390 sats \ 0 replies \ @astro_penguin 3 Mar

For someone that only needs to do basic computer tasks or specific tasks like audio recording they're probably fine. But any time I try to actually get work done there are Apple roadblocks flying up everywhere. I'm sure you get used to it or work around them eventually, as many of the Mac owners I know seem to enjoy their machines. I just have a hard time getting used to the lack of freedom and ownership of my machine!

262 sats \ 1 reply \ @jakoyoh629 3 Mar

I appreciate the high quality of Apple products, but I find the brand's elitism off-putting. Therefore, I do not own any Apple products.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 3 Mar

this

231 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury 3 Mar

I love Apple stuff because it's beautiful and functional. I get that there are implications to this, and I view those implications as a larger question of how a person wants to live in society. I think that tradeoff gets lost much of the time -- you can have perfect privacy by living in a shack in the woods, but is it worth it? Just like being in a romantic relationship, participating in the world necessarily requires compromises, and I'm willing to make a lot of them.

One thing I'm sensitive to, lately, is to better understand where and when I'm making those compromises, and choosing, in isolated ways, different spots along that gradient. I feel pretty good about this, for now. We'll see how it unfolds.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

Definitely align with that. I wish to be more comfortable with & to have experience of using alternatives. Even if I don’t end up using them every day. I think that’s how a lot of us feel.

The lack of time always necessitates we do more pressing tasks. But optionality when feeling you’re becoming the boiling frog is important.

Quite often we give companies the benefit of the doubt and hope they don’t make poor decisions but they still do. After all, they are regulated entities.

197 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 3 Mar

Your posts are as delicious as apples. Keep throwing one apple everyday for all of us and we may remain mentally sound.

119 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 3 Mar

249 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 3 Mar

Most people are stuck in the Apple jail with several Apple (spy)devices and don't know how to get out of that misery. To avoid dealing with the unsatisfactory feeling they lie to themselves by claiming how beautiful, nice and shiny the Apple cage looks like, how well the devices harmonize with each other and what a crap the Android open source project is. That's called cognitive dissonance.

In the end, the choice is yours: you can either blindly trust big-tech companies like Apple with your personal information, location and your freedom, or you can take proactive steps to protect yourself and be sovereign. The latter may require more effort, but isn't it worth it for the peace of mind?

Glad you are switching away from Apple prison @davidw 👍

213 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 3 Mar

Switch to GrapheneOS as daily driver. Stripped-back iPhone for legacy fiat/banking guff.

You can use your fiat/banking on your GrapheneOS, no need to keep your old iPhone.

Partitioning Macbook to run Fedora Asahi - gradually move across work before going all-in.

This is the way.

Wiped MacOS from Mac Mini to run as a secondary node.

Why do you need a secondary node?

Consider a non-Apple desktop as daily driver by 2025

This seems nice: https://starlabs.systems/

238 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 3 Mar

I am convinced most if not all of the "privacy" messaging around Apple is just a LARP.

Here are some points in particular I consider when saying that:

Apple kicked the privacy talk into overdrive when they introduced iOS 14 which severely hampered Facebook's profitability because it completely borked their tracking capabilities. Well at least they're standing up for privacy right? Well, I actually think it has to do with the fact that ZUCC stated publicly that they want to usurp the iPhone with the MetaVerse dystopia slave tech. Tim Apple's response: good luck with that. We're cutting your revenue by 30% kid. I do not think it was much more complicated than that. Monopolism thinly veiled with a virtue signal. The California Special.
Recently, we learned that Apple knew US intelligence has been snooping on push notifications for years and yet they did nothing. Not only did they do nothing, but they actually prevent devices from using any server that isn't in the APNS system (Apple owned). That prevents the system from decentralizing and federating. In this case unlike the first, corporate interested (walled garden preservation) was more important than their stated values of privacy.

Do they care about privacy? Sure. They don't want people to stop buying their shit because their privacy is overtly exploited. But fundamentally they don't care about anything other than the bottom line & being able to say "we're holier than thou".

181 sats \ 4 replies \ @StoneCodlHodl 3 Mar

GrapheneOS is a great mobile phone alternative. After a 2 week learning curve, I've been VERY happy with it for well over a year now. Updates are far more frequent and transparent with detailed change logs. A refreshing improvement versus the previous manufacturer+Telco sanctioned updates, which include only vague details. Not to mention GrapheneOS has a MUCH longer device and OS support lifecycle! I just wish they would support a tablet device.

In the notebook computing realm, using Debian Linux specifically. I've been a ThinkPad user since the 90's and finally feel that the Chinese Lenovo company has lost the ThinkPad spirit with my last purchase being the Carbon X1 Gen10.

But all is not lost! A couple months ago, I purchased the Framework 13-AMD Ryzen and thus far LOVE it. They have fantastic documentation, build+teardown videos, and an active Forum for all the other things. I'm putting in an order for the Framework 16 as well - I'm addicted already. The only missing piece here is an open source BIOS implementation.

25 sats \ 2 replies \ @JuanMiguel 4 Mar

GrapheneOS works great on Pixel Tablet

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @StoneCodlHodl 4 Mar

Oh nice! Didn't know this was an option (yet) - I'll look into this.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JuanMiguel 4 Mar

I don't find it very useful. Android Tablet is just a phone but with a bigger screen. Everything else is the same.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

Great feedback. Glad to hear those solutions are working out for you!

Look forward to a Framework 16 private setup guide ;)

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 3 Mar

113 sats \ 0 replies \ @KLT 3 Mar

Such a clear and well thought out post covering all angles. Super cool you to see my post as a reference! I use apple for work and personal and to me, they do build superior products that last longer and feel more cohesive to my needs personally. But their attitude as of late is very concerning and while my concern aren’t making me switch immediately, given the amount of time and nohow it’ll take, I am dipping my toes into understanding what are the alternatives out there.

So it’s the slow, gradual erosion of my trust that apple is losing that may cause me to look elsewhere in the next couple of years when it’s feeling like the apple product I have is near the end of its life. I’m conflicted because I want them to do better, but to avoid getting burned, like I said above, it’s time for me to learn about more open options.

218 sats \ 0 replies \ @doofus 3 Mar

Linus Torvalds uses Apple hardware

71 sats \ 0 replies \ @Atreus 3 Mar

Most of us have known it since we were little so it's very normalized, but even for an atheist, the bitten into apple 🍎 logo is weird and creepy when you think about it too much.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @doubleplusgood23 5 Mar

I moved to Apple almost entirely now after using desktop Linux for a decade plus.

I’ve enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I’m finding a lot of accusations down thread that it’s not capable of getting work done very puzzling. The range of applications I can install now on this very stable system allows me to focus on whatever work I am doing. It’s still Unix too so I have my familiar and friendly fish shell at arms reach.

One thing I did not expect was the responsiveness of everything, you can tell how deep the focus on a fluid desktop experience goes deep.

63 sats \ 4 replies \ @OT 3 Mar

The bad outweighs the good IMO. Still using one for a few legacy social media and fiat banking. I've been using Calyx for a few years now. Looking forward to trying Graphine on iPhone too.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Skipper 3 Mar

Looking forward to trying Graphine on iPhone too.

What?

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @OT 3 Mar

I saw someone on nostr mention it. Would be nice

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Skipper 3 Mar

The person who told you that doesn't know what they're talking about. Apple is a closed cage, they don't permit the installation of other operating systems on their devices. GrapheneOS will never be compatible with iPhones. It exclusively supports Google Pixels and nothing else.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 3 Mar

You're probably right

I can't find the note, maybe he deleted.

24 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 4 Mar

I don't care about non opensource software. I simply ignore anything @þþł€.

24 sats \ 2 replies \ @Atreus 3 Mar

@davidw, what do you think Apple's motives are for implementing 2-way iCloud encryption, advertising privacy, lockdown mode, etc? Are they the "good guys?"

Or maybe they're putting on a show for the public while hiding the behind-the-scenes backdoors?

108 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw OP 3 Mar

I believe they and their employees think they are the good guys. They want their customers to think they are. That they are the most privacy focused company.

They have done the research and know that people care about privacy. And that it’s imperative to accrue market share via this method. With more and more devices coming online each year.

They go to quite extreme lengths to portray that their solutions are private, to prevent other corporations from accessing their users data, whilst caving to pressures that circumvent those measures for legislators and perhaps more importantly themselves. I think they are better than most, but I also think we can expect much higher standards from Apple.

The simple fact is that to get to the position they are in, they have had to make some compromises, they have had to implement tiered or hidden access. They would not have been able to sell their devices in China without it, or to be the darling of the U.S. stock market without making deals/concessions with regulators. And I think we’re starting to get wind of the fact they have retained backdoors for sometime. In spite of the journalists not doing much journalistic stuff these days, the truth is starting to come out and the layers are being peeled back.

Overall I just think they are too big now, to be trusted. But I also see Bitcoin devs using google docs or Zoom for videoconferencing to collaborate and that’s certainly lower hanging fruit than expecting all those devs to migrate off Apple devices.