Oh yeah, and what about Microsoft?  They too were recently exposed as an offshore corporation NOT paying its due taxes here in Oz..... and you own zero MS products as well, right?.   Google, Yahoo and Adobe are others who were outed for Oz tax evasion, and we don't use their crap, either, right?

Seriously, I don't like any of them, either, but if one is to keep abreast of things in this eectroic age, one has to bite the bullet and use some of those products and services no tax was paid on.  I have an Apple Mac Mini and several MS Operating Systems (save Win 10.... not bloody likely) but I'm far from being a fanboi of either company.... same with Google and Yahoo.... both of whom are being brought before some senate committee to show cause as to why neither paid its tax bill.

And anuvver fing.....

I resemble that.  I'll have you know that I happen to have a very well balanced mind regarding such matters and more.  Just because I don't Like or trust Win 10 I'm tarred with the same brush as the other crackpots who cover their minds [and ears] with tinfoil hats.

Here's a very good article explaining why this is important to the piddling 300,000,000 or so of us to whom it applies and matters.

Agreed, Daiwa. It's a great article...and I'm amazed at all the folks who supposedly revere the Constitution as well as those having specialized in Constitutional law, willing to rape it for doubtful results except that once again, terrorism will have succeeded in changing our country for the worse.

Why these savants cannot see that is beyond me.

While terrorism can prosper under its protection [via anonymity] your country is already in a state of 'worse'....just as that 'free speech' ultimatum protects absolutely such creatures as the KKK..... and other fundamentally flawed/insane cult 'religions'.

Then we get idiots from the US wanting to come to Australia and preach such shit as 'it's OK to rape...provided it's on private property'...

Allowing such idiots to even breathe unassisted is beyond sanity.

Fortunately Oz can restrict permission for such idiots to enter..... bit like the US restricting access to people with a criminal record [because they already have enough of them]...

Hey! I happen to LIKE my tinfoil hat!

It's interesting that you seem to think the KKK is such a big deal here, Jafo.  It ain't & hasn't been for a long time.  What whack jobs who still wear the robes usually do so without hoods these days & they can have their space in the town square just like the Black Panthers, Code Pink & any number of similar nutjob clubs.  Mostly, people just smile, laugh, smirk & move on.  What people do is what matters, not what they are free to say.

You have only one?

 Not me, I have several.... some for different or speial occasions.   I have a closetful, though I keep spares in other parts of the house..... just in case the closet is too far away when the alien, government scanners are about. I just wish that somebody would invent fold up ones that could be kept in yer wallet like a condom, then if you're caught thinking by alien, government scanners while you're out.... but as you well know, current tin foil doesn't lend itslf too well to beimg folded up like that.

As for privacy and its 'supposed' importance to most, it never eases to amaze me just how many blindly trust and willy nilly give it away to companies like Microsoft and Apple.... even worse, Google.

And why have these data mining companies been allowed to collect and store information on just about every Tom, Dick and Harry with  PC and internet access?  It's obvious!   The powers that be only allow illegal/criminal activity when there's something in it for them.... and anyone who thinks some constitution or amendment is going to protect them fom that, they are either deluded or absurdly naive.  Laws and constitutions, while they appear to offer the average person something to believe in, are not drafted to protect or give the average Joe and his missus anything much, certainly nothing of real value..  No, they are drafted to control and keep him and her poor while the wealthy and powers that be, often times they are one and the same, divvy up the proceeds of ill-gotten gain between them.

I bumped into a 'good' politician once.  Well it was actually his headtone, but you get my meaning.

What anonymity? Never heard of the NSA? The FBI can get all of anything it wants...just ask the NSA...or the idiot's ISP.

No...they want to change Apple's (and any other the precedent will determine) OS...and weaken security for millions...and more thanks to the precedent.

They can have all the data WITHOUT changing the OS, and it won't be on just one phone. Amazed you cannot see the real motive, nor the real issues.

What I am saying is...if they NEED access to a terrorist's data they can also have mine FREELY.

It's worth it.

I value my life and safety MORE than my privacy.

America as a nation harbors paranoid delusions hence the preoccupation with gun ownership and privacy as well.

The world ISN'T out to get YOU ....but naturally that doesn't necessarily mean you won't at some stage get got.... 

BTW.... there is only one country on this planet that has my fingerprints and iris scans .... and it isn't Australia.

Of course they have your biometric data. That's for the TSA which fails every effing test thrown at it, as well as for when you get lost in L.A.

You actually believe that any info (that they can lift at any time from that stupid phone) is going to make any difference? Those chickens flew the coop long ago. At the time I emailed them after seeing the printer (in the terrorists' home) sitting undisturbed on the floor, and suggested they take it for its hard drive. Duh. You'd think they'd know to do that much, wouldn't you?

They're after every shred of data they can lay their paws on, from everyone with no regard to law. They don't even now what to do with it or where to store it when they do get it. They've run roughshod over the law, warrants and every other "limit" put on them...and have since the days of J. Edgar Hoover who blackmailed Presidents, Judges, Senators and Congressmen. He employed (just as his "professional" descendants have) illegal wire taps, etc. The current FBI, CIA, NSA and their foreign cousins GCHQ, etc. have the world wired and have zero regard for law.

Worse? Their own IT security is beyond laughable: All the details on all the FBI employees were obtained recently when they were hacked. But they're going to save your life. Right.

How long ago was the San Bernadino slaughter? Now they're trying to claim the "ticking bomb" nonsense? That's also the excuse they use for water boarding: The ticking bomb. BS. They've never had that situation, and water boarding (despite an AG's "learned opinion") is torture.

Worse, they're insulting everyone's intelligence with that "Apple's doing it for their marketing and image" bs. Really? Who's stupid enough to swallow that malarkey? And CNN puts a former FBI agent and two lawyers: Allan Dershowitz and Jeffrey Toobin on to "discuss" the implications of the iPhone Court Order...without a real IT security expert on that "panel". See how they direct and misdirect attention?

Sure. Go ahead and weaken security for everyone for data which can be obtained in other ways...so that the criminals have easier access to your OS as well. Makes as much sense as anything else every government does. Because it's NOT about that info. It's about no privacy from any tyrant bureaucrat or police official that has a "need" to look at anything and everything he feels like. Oh, and let's install webcams throughout your home and office "for your security".

I'm pretty sure all the law abiding nut bars who have been imprisoned and murdered by the US government because they were paranoid and had a gun collection in the mountains, or joined a wacky cult, would disagree with your premise that the world isn't out to get them.  There were kids at Waco, and they went in with armored vehicles and a gas the military had already banned for it's propensity to burn buildings down, when they could have gone in by invitation before they started flying helicopters over the place and putting sniper positions up.

My government is the only thing I do fear.  My odds of being the victim of a violent crime are very low.  I'm armed to a level that would send the typical lefty running in hilariously misplaced terror, I wont lose a minute of sleep over someone that makes me shoot them, and I don't live in a violent inner city controlled by liberal twats that tell me I can't carry and try to arrest me for killing an intruder in my own home.  The criminal element should fear me, and due to the reputation for shooting intruders without any legal grief in this area, I don't even have to lock my doors.  My odds of having the FBI or ATF come to take away my guns, using the background check list for gun purchases they're legally required to delete and keeping anyway, are much much higher.  They give me cause to worry in the form of hundreds of different factors that all point to the same thing, a social structure that wants me compliant and harmless so they can tell me what to do and when to do it, and wont tolerate any group that decides they're not interested.

All companies are motivated by one thing. To maximize shareholder value. It's insulting everyone's intelligence to believe that Apple's decision is based on some altruistic motive to keep people's personal data secure. They are positioning themselves in the market to appeal to a certain demographic and secure their loyalty. And judging from many of the responses, I think their marketing strategy is working.

I have no problem with that.  I'm just glad there's a market for such a strategy.  Enlightened (or otherwise) self-interest works for me.

Yep, what he said....

Americans' fear/distrust of their own Government and/or authority is the fundamental issue.  Perhaps you need a new 'War of Independence' from your own self.

Who is the bigger idiot....the one in power or the one who put him there?...