Amazon Removes Encryption From Its Devices, While Apple Fights To Keep It

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Depends on whether you're talking about our moral rights or our legal rights. If they take away our legal rights to encryption, they are no longer our rights in the legal sense.
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It depends on how it is done. Laws can be unconstitutional, while morality is rarely legislated.
 
For those who follow the " if you are doing nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide" then please install a public IP camera in your bathroom. (You aren't doing anything wrong in there are you? )

If not then you have nothing to hide, so install the camera!
 


If you went into a bathroom and saw that there was a camera monitoring the entire bathroom from multiple angles, would you use it? If not then then tell us what wrong things you are doing in there that you do not want others to know about.

If you have kids and you need to change them while on the go, would you use a changing table that also had an active camera pointed at it? if not then why? Are you doing something wrong to your kids?

Understand that it is possible to want privacy while at the same time not doing anything wrong. Encryption enhances privacy and security. It prevents someone from being able to quickly dump your data if they gain access to your device.

How many passwords do you think are saved on your phone or tablet?, How much personal information do you think is on it (cached or saved directly)?

Would you be comfortable with installing an FTP server app, and enabling just read only access, and then posting the link here so that we all can sift through your files?
 


While I don't agree that they should remove the encryption this example is way too far out there. It is not that I am doing anything wrong in the bathroom but I don't want people to see my stuff nor does anyone else.

Except turkey_scratch. He doesn't mind.
 

Priceless!
 
This is a troubling development considering the timing. Would not currently endorse any Amazon product until they explain this and re-enable the option.

I use local encryption on my Galaxy S6 and would be furious if Samsung suddenly forced me to disable encryption to get software updates.

Amazon needs to explain this quickly before too many informed people speculate.
 
This explains the people I know/relatives who are in the drug business using strictly iPhones. I don't have a phone so I don't care. It seems easier to steal info through the digital realm instead of through pen and paper.
 
Amazon has reversed it's previous decision to remove encryption per spokeswoman Robin Handaly Saturday. Will allow encryption in the spring firmware OTA update...

Thank god.
 
I will never, ever pay money for an Amazon tablet. First they make you pay money to remove "sponsored content" (read: ads) from the lock screen. And now this. So I'll never be purchasing or using an Amazon tablet.
 
wonder what back door deal the gov made with amazon....
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That's what I'd like to know also.

I'll never purchase any Amazon computing device, including their streaming TV devices. If they're jailbroken, any lost encryption will reveal this, so that's more to be worried about (note that some of these units are sold as such).

Amazon must have really cut a deal with the government, what could be even more troubling is that Microsoft could do the same. After all, they were the first major corporation sign the PRISM act. So this may not be the end of the news for privacy leaks.

As for Amazon, am thinking of just stopping doing business with them, used to be shipping was free after $25 purchase (though some vendors still ships for free), then it went to $35, now it's increased again. No way am I purchasing a Prime membership to cover the shipping charges for a few purchased items per year.

And if they'll sell devices that's unencrypted, what makes one think that they won't turn over one's purchase history on demand w/out a warrant? Sorry, I've lost my trust in the corporation, they work their employees in far worse conditions than Walmart, no wonder they can offer a retention bonus after 5 years of service. Anyone who'll work like a slave for that long is either desperate or looking to work their way up.

Considering all of this, am done with Amazon, for good. They may be an American corporation, yet they don't hold to American principles. This is just one of many, privacy is important to us all in some degree, this doesn't mean we're criminals, just because we want to protect our contact list, appointment reminders, etc. Many will only give their phone number to friends under one condition, that they won't tell the world. That's the way we're headed, no privacy whatsoever on the Internet.

Cat
 
Well, I am no longer purchasing devices from Amazon anymore. Rest in peace my Fire Tablet.
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What, pray tell, are you doing on a Fire tablet that you have fears of the FBI getting a hold of? Set a pin lock it - and you have kept out 99.9% of people.
If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
or is it just principle?
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You do realise that 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' is a quote from Joseph Goebbels? None other than the Nazi minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda?

If you want to be a slave to a totalitarian regime, go for it, but don't assume the rest of us are so keen to kneel alongside you...
 

Well challenged!
 


Well you could take it to that extreme of course. Anything can be taken to an extreme.

The question is where is the line? Is it in that the government or local authorities have no ability to try to protect the people or do we have some privacy given up?

It is hard to just say one way or the other. Much like that terrorist who killed multiple people, their rights to privacy are voided as would be any criminal utilizing technology for their purposes to kill people. But every day ordinary citizens should not have to worry as in that the government or authorities would not need nor should not invade their privacy without a warrant issued with just cause, i.e. that person is found to be in criminal activities.

Still it is not that easy as some people will not mind that way and others will feel it is too much.
 
Ladies & gentlemen, this is the year 2016, not 1936-1945, so I believe it's kind of safe to agree with the quote today, the one who said it may not had realized it's history, may had heard it repeated elsewhere by many others, and I came very close to saying a similar one to someone else.

It's not so much about doing nothing wrong, therefore why fear the government ransacking one's data, it's the principle of it all, in the US, a direct violation of the First Amendment, the freedom of speech & privacy. The same with gun control zealots, that's exactly how in large part the Nazi regime pulled off what they did, disarming a free society is morally wrong, the only ones with guns would be the military, major government agencies, police & finally the targeted group, outlaws. They'll always have guns, no matter how many laws are passed, where are there honest outlaws? They create & live by their own laws.

So I believe the quote was taken a bit out of context, if there's anyone to fear, it's the government, not the OEM's of encrypted devices, and in a recent case, the device belonged to one who was shot dead, so why the dragging of Apple through the mud? Had Steve Jobs still been with us, he'd likely flipped the FBI, CIA & NSA a bird & cared less. Tim Cook is doing the right thing, but needs to show a little more backbone in doing so, Apple has the power to remotely erase everything on the device if desired, via a tamper switch.

Amazon has shown their side & only after public backlash & under pressure, changed tunes fast. The ones we need to be worried about are Microsoft, who were the first major corporation to join forces with the government in signing the PRISM Act. That has huge implications for all of us, and the release of Windows 10 was the major fulfillment to set things in gear. There an app that's free that blocks at least 35 privacy holes & counting (it was originally only around 20). I bet anything that if it was a Windows Phone, Redmond would had handed over the password before asked, a violation of the owner's rights, and one reason why one shouldn't store these passwords on OneDrive or any Microsoft site.

Some countries such as Australia, have outright made it a crime to teach encryption methods. Why ban a technology that was in place before computers were a thought in someone's mind, there's been ways to encrypt messages for years. It's likely been used for 4,000 years, if not longer & now in 2016, major law enforcement agencies wants it banned? That's like the idea of Donald Trump building a wall along the US-Mexico border, an idea 40 years too late.

There will always be a demand for encryption, and some may revert to double encryption if such laws are passed to ban it. There are other options, such as VeraCrypt, available to use on most any OS.

Cat
 


Yeah, Amazon seen that selling devices with backdoors wasn't going to fly, and changed course fast. We should be entitled to encrypt our personal data, as long as we're abiding by the laws of our land, privacy is a right. So is free speech, yey one must choose their words carefully in public, including on forums such as here & on social sites, so as not to offend others.

Amazon has had a successful business for years, and they're not going to let silliness ruin it, maybe they were testing the waters & found it not so good an idea.

Plus, as we've seen in the case of the iPhone, the government can seize phones, computers, and any storage devices of criminals (or suspected ones) with a warrant. Therefore no need to stop encryption by any corporation.

Really, it's Microsoft we should be concerned about the most, they were the first major corporation to join PRISM, and their Windows 10 release is fulfilling it's duty to the government. They can bypass any custom settings & watch one though their webcam/microphone, catch every word one types, and a lot more that we don't even know about.

Apple done the right thing & has been, so has Amazon. Microsoft is the one to be on the lookout for, they even encourage it's users to store encryption keys in their OneDrive storage & finally they have over 90% market share of computing devices, so they're a huge magnet for more than Malware.

They're the real threat to invading our privacy. Windows 10 is not Free as consumers thinks.

Cat

 
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