Apple has been accused of installing “security back doors” into its hardware in order to grant them “surveillance-level access” to users’ data, such as photos, browser history and their GPS location.
Security expert Jonathan Zdziarski has written extensively about how iOS’ features have evolved over the past few years, allowing information that was previously thought to be secure to be viewed via back doors implemented into the operating system. This would impact upon all of Apple’s devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Zdziarski has also claimed that Apple has introduced some services into iOS that shouldn’t there as part of the firmware, saying: “I think at the very least, this warrants an explanation and disclosure to the some 600 million customers out there running iOS devices.”
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Apple did respond to the controversy that ensued, claiming that the back doors in iOS were for “diagnostics and enterprise,” though Zdziarski noted that the services send private information to Apple regardless of whether ‘Send Diagnostic Data to Apple’ is on or off, adding: “Every single device has these features enabled and there’s no way to turn them off, nor are users prompted for consent to send this kind of personal data off the device. This makes it much harder to believe that Apple is actually telling the truth here.”
Despite the threat to the privacy of users of Apple products, Zdziarski stated that there was no reason to panic as these features could easily be removed. He concluded: “My paranoia level is tweaked, but not going crazy. My hope is that Apple will correct the problem. Nothing less, nothing more. I want these services off my phone. They don’t belong there.”
[Via zdziarski.com]
