Apple censoring iCloud emails and attachments

Apple censoring iCloud emails and attachments

www.macworld.co.uk

Apple's iCloud email service deletes all emails that contain the phrase "barely legal teen" it was revealed today.
Macworld has tested this by sending two test emails from a personal iCloud account. The message read "My friend's son is already allowed to drive his high-powered car. It's ridiculous. He's a barely legal teenage driver? What on earth is John thinking."
The second email amended the phrase "a barely legal" to "barely a legal". This second email was delivered fine, whereas the first is still undelivered.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So all yuo folks worried about the Govt reading and censoring - now you are subject to the morals and mores of whatever it is Apple thinks is acceptable at any point in time.

no doubt the other giants (MS, Google, etc) at least thinking about doing something similar.

And with the vertically integrated 'net functions of the 'cloud that are getting more and more ubiquitous, and the difficulty changing from one of these monster "cloud providers" to the other their grip on us is getting tighter and tighter.

Your account is worth money to them - and they will subtly and not-so-subtly make is impossible for you to change providers once you are hooked - everything you do on an Apple will require an iOS, everythign you do on Google will requier Android, MS have anounced plans to allow only apps sold from their stores to run on Win 8 (although I haven't heard any more of that - did it hapen??)......

Y'all worry about the NWO and the illuminati, while happily slaving yourself to a corporate entity because of the phone you bought!!

www.macworld.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


iCloud is ENTIRELY optional as a feature.

iCloud is also storage owned by Apple, so they can make all the decisions they damn well please about what kind of content they are willing to host or not. They've always been anti porn and I'm pretty sure you can't upload straight up pornographic material to iCloud either. ( not an invitation to discuss your personal experience with that particular thing..)

So yeah, this isn't news, or something to complain about since nobody is forcing you to buy crappy Apple products and use their services.

You also can't compare this to anything to government does when it collects information. Two different ball games. The government actually owes you an explanation for things in most cases. Apple does not.

ETA: Sorry, I re-read this and noticed it could have come off as if I was scolding you some how...I'm not, that was directed at people who would complain in the manner I am describing, not yourself .

~Tenth

And His Holy of Holiest comes down out of the clouds to rebuke his children.

My children you have forsaken the 11th amendment and watched too much internet porn, therefore I will strike down my vengeance upon you and take away your voice so that you cannot tell your friends about naked girls.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


It gets to the deeper issue that everyone should be discussing.

Quantifying Humanity (using computers/digital algorithms.)

Humans and their activity may 'sometimes' fit a pattern, yet computers will NEVER be able to adequately quantify humanity... SO STOP TRYING you freakin geeks and their handlers.

Leave us the hell alone and stop invading our lives.

Long ago, I noticed what appears to be the software programmers attempting to quantify EVERY activity. Record everything. For what purpose...? Just because you can buy unlimited electronic storage media with our money?

There doesn't seem to be any other purpose for attempting to quantify what we do except to establish even tighter controls. You know what? Their algorithms are WRONG.

It almost seems as though the movie "Forbin Project" was a documentary.

And it's taken until now to begin the 'deep analysis' of human behavior... The computer that controls the world (via human minions held hostage) is struggling to understand humanity... (to keep us safe from harm so that we can better service IT)

I've hated computers for 35 years... They are lucky that I don't destroy them all.

All you computers, compartmentalized-leet-thinking-uber-geeks and their masters should go calculate fuggin Pi.. Begone from humanity because you don't deserve us.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

iCloud is ENTIRELY optional as a feature.

iCloud is also storage owned by Apple, so they can make all the decisions they damn well please about what kind of content they are willing to host or not. They've always been anti porn and I'm pretty sure you can't upload straight up pornographic material to iCloud either. ( not an invitation to discuss your personal experience with that particular thing..)

So yeah, this isn't news, or something to complain about since nobody is forcing you to buy crappy Apple products and use their services.

You also can't compare this to anything to government does when it collects information. Two different ball games. The government actually owes you an explanation for things in most cases. Apple does not.

ETA: Sorry, I re-read this and noticed it could have come off as if I was scolding you some how...I'm not, that was directed at people who would complain in the manner I am describing, not yourself

.

~Tenth

edit on 2/28/2013 by tothetenthpower because: (no reason given)

Yes, I agree to a degree. BUT, in accepting to use their service you have expectations that your emails will get through.

What I object to, is the hidden nature of these 'features.' If Apple comes out with a list of things they will not allow including banned phrases then I agree with you.

But they do not. It would be like being on ATS where only the Mods know the T&Cs. That is entirely unacceptable!

P

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

You also can't compare this to anything to government does when it collects information. Two different ball games. The government actually owes you an explanation for things in most cases. Apple does not.

I am sure that you are right, technically. But if apple informed people that all of their interactions with the cloud were being rummaged through by some editing program, they wouldn't sell much. The whole point behind the idea is to rent storage space outside of your computer. When I rent storage space outside of my home for tools and such, I don't worry about the landlord looking through my things to make sure I don't have something perverted in there. It seems ludicrous that the landlord would ever dream about doing that. What's the difference here?

reply to post by pheonix358


I agree entirely. I'm sure that if you dug up the service agreement for iCloud, it's clearly stated that they have limitations on acceptable content. The App store has one for the porno and other graphic material.

Now whether or not you want to wade through 180 pages of legal jargon is up to you I suppose .

~Tenth

reply to post by Quauhtli

What's the difference here?

Let me give you another example that fits better. Housing is a whole other ball game. Your landlord can't do that, because there are established laws about living spaces and stuff.

Let's use credit cards. If you have a credit card, the company can, at any time freeze your funds. Why can they do this? Because they own the money they are lending you.

It's the same reason Apple can decide what to host on it's cloud and what it won't. It's a matter of legal liability in some cases as well. We all know there are very dark places on the internet and I'm sure part of this is a precaution against that sort of thing.

~Tenth

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by pheonix358

 

I agree entirely. I'm sure that if you dug up the service agreement for iCloud, it's clearly stated that they have limitations on acceptable content. The App store has one for the porno and other graphic material.

Now whether or not you want to wade through 180 pages of legal jargon is up to you I suppose

.

~Tenth

In Australia it is illegal to force customers to wade through 180 pages of legal jargon. Yay for us!

It is the hidden nature of these provisions that is distasteful. It is the acceptance by people such as yourself, no insult intended, that these things are quite OK that I find hard to accept.

All contracts should be upfront and honest.

P

reply to post by pheonix358


Blame the lawyers. If companies didn't have to protect themselves against frivolous law suits, contracts would be easier to deal with. It's also a matter of people not having the basic level of reading comprehension required to read and understand a few common legal terms.

That doesn't mean that I agree it's OK for them to do this, but you have to legislate that sort of change, companies aren't going to leave themselves liable to suit if they can avoid it.

I'm entirely disgusted by the majority of business practices in the world today, including those of Apple and most other fortune 500 companies.

All I'm saying is that for as long as we let them act this way, consumers are going to need to be informed by their own means. Don't expect a company whose dedicated not to their product or consumers, but to their share holders, to help you make informed decisions about whether or not their product is good or not.

They'll tell you it's perfect every time.

Originally posted by DrMattMaddix
It almost seems as though the movie "Forbin Project" was a documentary.

Unfortunately that probably goes over most people's head. Colossus and Guardian are here now.... set up by geeks

unlike apple ... with android you have far more choice - especially after rooting android devices as once rooted you have full control over what is / is not on your device.

As to apple censoring no surprise there .. no way in hell will I ever own an apple idiot device they're inferior .. limited ... overpriced .. overhyped rubbish .. built at cost of human lives with slave labour ... apple can go to hell.

reply to post by Expat888


Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG etc...

ALL use the same practices as Apple to produce their products. They are mostly ALL overpriced, pieces of substandard tech. I'm not defending Apple's practices, but they are common in the market. Actually if you asked them they would probably tell you it's integral to their bottom line.

How else could they convince you to buy a new one every few years?

~Tenth

reply to post by DrMattMaddix


Frankly, IMHO, you sound like the mathematicians who were objected to complex numbers because they would 'lead to the devil'.

20000BC, Cavemen A invented fire. Caveman B says: 'Oh, dear! You're trying to take Mother Nature in your own hands! Only Nature gets to decide when to start fires.'

15000BC, Iron Age Man A invented fire. Iron Age Man B says, 'Hey! If you're going to move, you're moving the way Nature does, not with these tools!'

5000BC, Mr Scribe invents writing. Mr Blacksmith says, 'how can you put our sacred thoughts into words?'

Just because something doesn't fit into the old ways (in this case, when human behaviour was a mystery) doesn't mean we can't innovate (try to explain human behaviour).

IMHO: Serves them right. If they want to support what is one of the most un-ethical corporations (oxymoron I know) in history; and choose NOT to own a real computer (or phone or tablet), but some designer consumer electronic device, then they deserve what they get.

Build a real computer and order a big glass of "Harden the F***-up princess".

The above must be why I have never bothered with a cell phone,iPad,laptop,blackberry, green berry, red berry,footpad, galaxy idiotpad, smartphone, dumbphone, whatever pad, all I have is a desktop and a landline, I must be considered a fossil of some sort, like I say to people aghast at my lack of portable crap, if the government wants to know where I am, it can come and look for me.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by pheonix358

 

Blame the lawyers...

Ummm Lawyers are required (in most common law jurisdictions, which the US is last time I checked--with the exception of Louisiana) to represent whomever approaches them first with a legal issue.

Its not the lawyers fault that Apple wanted to sue Google, its just their job to represent their client. Thats how law works, otherwise rapists will never get representation.

Apple are the rapists in the above analogy.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


yet another reason to avoid the very fashionable apple.....

I remember having to work with mail system many years ago, and some people were, to be honest, retarded as they'd click on any old thing in an Email and then log helpdesk calls to have someone look at the constant spam they were getting.

Always some porn site had obtained their email. And this happened a lot.

In my opinion it was their own fault, they can deal with it and learn how to filter their mail to learn. but policy of the place I worked was no explicit email. so they scratched their heads on how to fix it.

I left the place not long after but can imagine their decision being in line with most other government policies.

I wonder what would happen today when some new employee came along and says wonder why they can't send an email ... and find out that certain search terms were filtered by default.. Oh the outrage how dare they control my personal email. And while you fix it, someone come and stop this spam I'm getting, surely you can do something.