Apple’s new iOS 7 update boasts a vibrant visual overhaul, enables multitasking, and adds brand new camera software
among some other improvements. But the most controversial and radical change
that iOS 7 has to offer is the unlimited access to user’s personal data that
Apple provides to law enforcement. Those who find this breach of privacy unnerving
will be even more unsettled that Apple’s entire iPhone 5S fingerprint data will
be shared with the NSA. In fact, for over a year the NSA and FBI have been compiling
a special database of fingerprints to be used specifically with Apple’s new 5S
technology. While the new technology certainly increases our convenience while
lending a hand to law enforcement, it also breaches the bounds of privacy.
Apple’s decisions raises the question, what should the ethical and legal reaches
of online surveillance be determined by?
On the other hand, many companies have
taken measures to protect the privacy and anonymity of their customers. Forbes,
for example, is launching a new tool for sending anonymous tips and documents.
Sensitive information which is usually communicated through email can now be
sent into Forbes through a tool called SafeSource, which uses the Tor anonymity
network to upload documents to their reporters, while protecting the identity of
the sender. As Forbes notes regarding its own tool, these precautions may seem
paranoid. Nevertheless, people are paranoid and companies need to accommodate these
customers, who will only increase in number as our lives become less private.
This clash between opponents of online surveillance and its advocates is embodied, to a certain extent, in the
NSA’s attempts to breach anonymity networks such as Tor. Nevertheless, Tor’s
ability to effectively preserve the anonymity of its users has been tested and
proven against high standards. The National Security Agency’s inability to
break Tor’s anonymity protection regarding the documents leaked by Edward
Snowden presents a triumph for the opponents of online surveillance, and preserves
some hope for a future in which we can retain semblance of privacy in our
everyday lives.
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Nyall Islam
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