Meredith WhittakerDec 29, 2023

This is great reporting.

In particular, it's shocking that a key pillar of Apple's brand--its commitment to security & its competence at such--was so blithely undermined by Apple's regional policy team, apparently in service of appeasing an angry Modi gov.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/27/india-apple-iphone-hacking/

India targets Apple over its phone hacking notifications

Apple’s warnings to users that it had detected possible efforts to install spyware on iPhones triggered an angry reaction from Indian officials.

The Washington Post
Show threadAral BalkanDec 30, 2023
@Mer__edith Are you implying trillion-dollar corporations are not the bulwarks of human rights and democracy we always imagined they were? ;)
Show threadMeredith WhittakerDec 30, 2023
@aral No! I'm saying that for Apple, brand is everything, whether the branding is "true" or not. And this shows them apparently willing to damage their global brand in a way I'm surprised by, given how much emphasis and investment they put into it.
Show threadAral Balkan
@Mer__edith Yeah, I was developing for their platform for the same reason. Was similarly surprised and I no longer am. Clearly, they’re a trillion-dollar corporation first and everything else later. So likely somewhere there’s a bean counter who weighs the cost to the brand of a relative handful of folks on a niche social network knowing about their misdeeds versus the perception however many millions in advertising and PR will generate. Ethics is PR for these folks.
Dec 30, 2023 at 10:00pmWeb