In an article on Forbes, Kashmir Hill discussed the new privacy battle between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, recently wrote an open letter on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s official website, touting that Apple gives top priory to users’ data security. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is also promising security features in the upcoming version.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rolled out iOS 8 with a very important feature, which is getting the attention of security experts, users and government law enforcement agencies. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that in iOS 8, users can encrypt all their data on the iPhone and this encryption cannot be broken without a passcode set by the user. In this way, even if a government authority gets a legitimate permission to check your iPhone, it cannot see the data without your permission, which is the passcode in this case.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) also jumped in this security frenzy and announced that soon, it will make it possible for the users to encrypt their phone’s data with their passcode. Apparently, this is a positive race between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google for securing user data, but many experts are questioning the practicality of these features. Hill quoted a legal expert, Orin Kerr, who thinks that these features will make it impossible for law enforcement agencies to make legitimate searches for useful data even with a legal warrant. Hill fears that users with negative intents can make it look like they have forgotten their passcode whenever a legal search is about to be made. This can become a security concern for the government in the future.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are doing everything they can to win the trust of their customers. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recently suffered an embarrassment because of an iCloud hack, after which numerous images of nude celebrities were leaked online. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), on the other hand, is doing everything it can to cover up the loop holes it has in Android because of its open source structure.
Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP is one of the shareholders of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), having approximately 52 million shares of the company.
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