this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Privacy
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I mean, this is not new. They already do this in mainland China to comply with PRC laws...
Yeah but China ain't a democracy and Apple has their stuff manufactured in China. So you'd expect them to bend over backward to comply there.
The UK on the other hand is nominally a democracy, and Apple has no vital need to keep the UK powers that be happy. Apple could very well decide to tell them to pound sand and pull out of the country for the sake of principles, and I guarantee you the UK would quickly back down.
If Apple hadn't complied in the UK, they would have lost a bit of profits for a while, but gained a ton of good will and credibility. They chose profits. Because corporation.
Incidentally, this whole thing should tell you how much of a democracy the UK really is.
I'm not a fan of Apple at all but they could've done a lot worse. They've basically refused to backdoor encryption and instead announced (as opposed to silently doing it) its removal instead.
I think what we should be more concerned about here is the total silence from other companies who offer encrypted cloud services. Might that imply they've already (as per the terms of the UK's edict) silently complied?