Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
It's important to keep in mind that:
- It was not necessary for Apple to unlock devices for the NSA.
- Police use Stingray devices and taps at phone towers to track you based on your location, which is out of Apple's jurisdiction.
- Backdoor-equivalent features that are running on all modern iOS devices which do not require Apple specialists to activate were found and were disclosed at Blackhat this year.
- Police have access to forensic kits that give them access to devices without working with manufacturers.
- Backdoors are created in commercial products through ABBA, ORCHESTRA, and other programs and so often are not known by the company.
- Other tech companies have a history of misleading their customers about the access police and government have to their products (Skype, Blackberry, Microsoft OneDrive/Sharepoint).
- There is legal precedent which forces you to unlock your devices and hand over encryption keys in the case of an investigation.
- Physical access (think geohot's original iPhone root) always means device ownership. Always.
- Much of the data on your iDevice is automatically synced to the cloud (think recent celebrity nude leaks). Your device often does not need to be unlocked in this case.