Time to switch to HarmonyOS.
They’ve been trying to get at our digital devices for over thirty years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip
Even encryption technology itself was listed by the US as “national security relevant” or whatever in an attempt to prevent export. The encryption standards published and recommend by the US were also crackable by intelligence agencies for a long time, may still be.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Fuck that.
Yeah, well, unfortunately for the US population (and world… since people use the products worldwide) if the Nazi-asses say it just barely in a slightly ordering or angry tone, Apple and Google (and everyone else) will immediately drop on their knees and start sucking toe.
This is sort of ironically one of the few areas that private corporations, if they found an ounce of value in doing so, could stand up to the might of the US Gov. In most cases the government (of any country, really) can simply legally steamroll any non-cooperative private corporations. Pass a few laws if they deem it necessary, but Trump seems to be more on a vibes-based EO signing spree. So there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t just sign a napkin and hand it to Tim Apple saying “I order you to listen to KASH FUCKING DUMBASS “ONE BILLION DONKEYS” Patel”
Google will 100% fold immediately. I thought they did years ago, but might be misremembering. Pretty sure they actively aid the FBI when they “request” assistance unlocking devices. Apple, at least publicly, still refuses to help. I think now they even claim they can’t help at all even if they wanted to (which is the ideal standard, imo. Don’t even let the corpos have the ability to implement backdoors)
Apple might make a show of it. I only say this because they do sort of sell their products with the tagline of “we keep your shit secure. See, look, we even tell the US Gov to fuck off regarding “terrorism” suspects’ devices!”
I have basically no faith in their withstanding any actual amount of pushback though and without the backing of Google, MS, Meta, etc. to include any corporation that handles private, encrypted messaging of any sort… they will ultimately fail no matter if they resist or not. As a US corporation they are beholden by the laws of the US and, again, Kash “Donkeys in the Walls!” Patel strikes me as a “man” with so many chips on his shoulders that… well, I don’t know the metaphor there. He’s a very stupid person and also immoral, evil, however you wanna characterize him. So, he’d absolutely strong arm if necessary. Normally something I’d support from the gov (arresting corpo scum), but of course they’d only do so to advance the worst policies ever.
I don’t think the US ruling class, and therefore tech company boards and CEOs, are really against the idea of breaking encryption for consumers. They’re just acting for the audience, or maybe their hang-up is what surveillance tasks the government may expect from them when all user data is effectively clear text.
they get NSLs and that’s it if you don’t comply you don’t exist as a business
How safe from/vulnerable to that is Xiaomi’s android based OS?
I guess if the US legislates this then Xiaomi would be forced to comply for the devices sold in US.
I’m in Europe though.
As if the EU cares about our privacy… Especially if they get us into a hot war with Russia, you can be sure they will quickly pass laws to let them look into everyone’s messages to see if they are “Russian spies”. They are already extremely paranoid and see “Putin agents” around every corner. Germany literally arrests people for pro-Palestinian posts.
The EU has been trying to break encryption for years. First it was to “combat terrorism,” now it’s to “protect children,” but we all know those are just excuses to monitor any communications from whoever is the undesirable group of the week.
