Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California and announced some notable software, as well as hardware upgrades just yesterday. Post the keynote speech, CEO Tim Cook sat down with Bloomberg TV for a chat session, only to reveal that Cupertino has been co-operating with the U.K government, handing over metadata, following the 3 consecutive terror attacks in the last three months.
While discussing user security and privacy in the face of these grave instances, such as the Manchester or London bombings, Cook goes on to mention that Apple isn’t just sitting back and watching the show. He goes on to add:
We have been cooperating with the U.K. government not only in law enforcement kind of matters but on some of the attacks — not only in law enforcement matters but in some of the attacks and I can’t speak in detail about that.
He further goes on to mention that the said process of handing down information isn’t anything new. If the regulatory bodies have come asking for confidential info, but through the correct lawful process, then Apple has acted ever so promptly and handed down the information required by the police. Cook further stated that encryption works differently than you might think as there is some scope for building the profile of an individual using metadata — not the exact info but some of it.
These statements from the chief executive of a leading technology giant come fresh on the heels of the terrorist attacks which have been occurring consecutively for the last three months. It started off with a lone attacker in Westminster, followed by the antics of the suicide bomber in Ariana Grande’s Manchester tour stop and the most recent London van and knives blast — which has caused the death of around 34 citizens.
With regards to the recent terrorist attacks that rocked Europe, Prime minister Theresa May has been demanding instant change to the country’s digital regulations. She believes that the said change could push the technology giant to loosen its grip over privacy by not providing a safe haven to extremists or terrorists alike. The U.K government has also been voicing its views against end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which it believes should be eliminated from protecting user data shared by a terrorist organization.
