One of the most effective issues about iMessage—except for the beloved blue texts—is that your conversations are encrypted end-to-end. That means solely the sender and receiver can see the precise contents of a message, and anybody who tries to intercept it in between is out of luck, even Apple.
However, that’s solely true in the event you’re texting with one other iPhone person. If you’re chatting with one of many a whole lot of tens of millions of people that has an Android cellphone, iMessage sends out your chats in common, unencrypted SMS, an historical format that’s rife with safety considerations.
Google, the maker of Android, has been attempting to collaborate with Apple to clear up this drawback by adopting a brand new commonplace for texts. But thus far, Apple has refused. A reporter requested Tim Cook when Apple was going to repair the difficulty, he quipped that, in the event you’re fearful about it, it is best to “buy your mom an iPhone.”
Apple might additionally simply make an iMessage app for Android, however it probaly gained’t. If you’re questioning why, there’s a easy reply: competitors. A lawsuit accusing Apple of monopolistic practices uncovered emails between executives discussing the potential change. They make it clear that a part of Apple’s iMessage technique is to entice iPhone customers.
In an e mail, Apple’s senior vice chairman of software program engineering, Craig Federighi, mentioned, “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” Another Apple worker mentioned elsewhere that “the #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage … iMessage amounts to serious lock-in.”
Addressing this difficulty could be a straightforward strategy to make a dramatic privateness enchancment for Apple customers, a few of whom have spent tens of 1000’s of {dollars} on the corporate’s merchandise. Instead, Apple looks like it’s deliberately perpetuateing the issue.
#Apple #Privacy #Problems #Surprise
https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-ipad-privacy-problems-data-gathering-1849855092
