Delays aren’t good enough – Apple must abandon its surveillance plans
The problem here is similar to what happens with the War on Terror.<p>1) It is noted that governments could, in theory, be spying on everything. Widely dismissed as silly.<p>2) There is a trigger event (eg, 9/11). Inside government, a standard slips. They start spying on everything.<p>3) Years later it becomes public knowledge. It is too hard to monitor what is going on now though, so it is difficult to tell who specifically should be outraged about what.<p>4) The situation persists because it is convenient to the people in charge.<p>5) (TBD) It gets turned on political dissidents. I'm expecting everyone will agree on this point in 5 or so years, at the moment that is probably maybe more a partisan observation.<p>Apple's partnering up will follow the same pattern. There just isn't enough transparency about what closed source software does.