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Comment by Ntrails | Hacker News Reader

There's no advantage to them in people using iMessage. They can easily get your text messages already.

You could go high-tinfoil and claim they would rather people iMessaged than using whatsapp or some other free message service? But anyone thinking about avoiding federal intercepts would use neither of these things rendering this piece worthless.

So what do they actually have to gain?

It seems more likely to me that this is a real problem than a PR piece.

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If I were the feds and I had an intimate relationship with AT&T (hi, warrantless wiretaps!) and VWZ and other wireless providers stretching back decades, and all of these other wireless providers sent SMS content in the clear, I'd very much want everyone in the world to continue to use SMS.

Encrypting text messages with iMessage or a similar service simply makes my life more difficult. And remember Apple has been lobbying against a law that would extend CALEA to iMessage.

This could encourage people to use an encrypted messaging program that is closed-source, has a large attack surface, and that might not be patched if a flaw is found. So they do have some incentive to get people to use iMessage over something like Cryptocat.

Cryptocat is coming out with a mobile app soon! But they are funded by a NGO which is funded by the DOD :P

The choice for 99.99% of Apple users is not iMessage vs. Cryptocat. It's iMessage vs. unencrypted SMS transmitted and in some cases retained by carriers with close relationships with FedGov.

Yeah but everyone and their mom knows or should know that regular txt messages are easily taken. Maybe the street corner kids use the plain messages but the big fish might slip and use a crackable method. DEA could be waiting

>It seems more likely to me that this is a real problem than a PR piece.

You don't mean that a reputable tech news site would ever use 'Apple' and 'iSomething' in a headline for SEO bate?

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