Apple’s Encryption Lie: Is It Really “Encryption” If the Government Can Access It Whenever They Want?

Short answer? No. No it’s not.

Apple is running around talking about how “safe” and “protected” your messages are because, unlike Google or Amazon, they aren’t about collecting and saving your data or giving it out or anything. In fact, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently took to Charlie Rose to expound on just how much his company cares about you and your data and your privacy and your data’s privacy.

“Our view is, when we design a new service, we try not to collect data. So we’re not reading your email. We’re not reading your iMessage. If the government laid a subpoena to get iMessages, we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have a key,” Cook said.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Suuure it is.

Nope. Sorry. Wrong. The government can totally get that data. Especially if they deem you a suspect.

According to BGR, there’s only about six ways that your Apple iMessages are not protected from Big Brother’s prying eyes if you are a suspect, encryption or not. And it doesn’t take a whole lot to be a suspect these days in America.

And that’s if the FBI even follows the rules about obtaining warrants to get your data. Considering the FBI operates a “small air force” to spy on us, not to mention their lovely stingray devices, is there any reason we should believe they are following the letter of law and not just sucking up all of our metadata wholesale all the time every hour of every day we use any Internet-connected device? (Or was that the NSA…)

Can you just imagine what life will be like on the always-connected smart grid?