Apple is lobbying Californian lawmakers against 'Right to Repair' bill

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3074896/apple-is-lobbying-californian-lawmakers-against-the-right-to-repair

by rhokstar • 7 years ago

52 32 7 years ago

benmarks• 7 years ago

"With access to proprietary guides and tools, hackers can more easily circumvent security protections, harming not only the product owner but also everyone who shares their network"

Of the many consumer insults present in this entire topic, this one really shows the ridiculousness of Apple's position.

simion3144• 7 years ago

Exactly, like the guides do not leak anyway.

CaliforniaKarl• 7 years ago

The way I read GP's comment, is that security researchers have been able to find security vulnerabilities even without access to information.

tombert• 7 years ago

For that matter, if more altruistic people had access to these tools, couldn't you argue that security bugs would be found quicker as well? As of right now, it's possible that there are a million security bugs that black-hat hackers are sitting on that the average person doesn't have the tools to know about.

Isn't security-through-obscurity considered the worst kind of security?

henryackerman• 7 years ago

Security-through-obscurity can be very effective by using it to throw up a smoke screen.

Case: you need to protect a web server. If you can successfully hide/spoof your OS/software fingerprint, an attacker won't know whether your server has vulnerable software. This makes exploit selection extremely difficult.

You can protect an already secure system from 0-day or unknown exploits by hiding whether you're running windows/linux/bsd/whatever with IIS/apache/nginx/traefik/caddy.

Of course this should not be used as an argument to introduce laws that limit the rights of repair shops, users or even security researchers.

natch7• 7 years ago

The tradeoff here is between right to repair, and users having secure, trustworthy devices that will not spy on them. Put yourself in the shoes of an abused family member who lives with a hardware tinkerer who can pwn your device, unbeknownst to you, enabling further abuse (not talking about physical abuse necessarily here).

Just to take one slice of the population as an example, Apple has many gay and trans employees and no doubt users as well, so they are keenly aware of the problems these people can face whether while growing up, or afterwards.

As another example, take a look at the /r/atheism subreddit FAQ about coming out to your family, and read some of the horror stories there. People get disowned, kicked out of their parents homes, physically threatened, and even physically harmed in some cases, just for thinking for themselves.

As another example, in some cultures, honor killings are also a thing.

Users deserve to have their personal devices be secure, even from hostile family or household members.

On the other side is right to repair. I would love to see both sides be satisfied, but I do think the right to repair folks have been too militant in ignoring and dismissing the legitimate concerns Apple has about preserving user privacy.

Then there is the bogus line of argument that Apple is only against right to repair because they are heartless, greedy, profit fiends. But there are plenty of profit opportunities they have forgone, such as gathering personal data to exploit for ad networks, which argue otherwise. So I don't buy it.

quakeguy2• 7 years ago

Sorry, but what do you want to say with your comment? Changing a broken screen does not invalidate any chips on the motherboard afaik..

natch7• 7 years ago

I think my comment is pretty clear.

Just to address your one cherry-picked hardware item:

Changing a broken screen does not invalidate any chips on the motherboard afaik..

On some devices (those with fingerprint sensors) there are security implications.

rockinghigh• 7 years ago

The right to repair does not make the device less secure. Most vulnerabilities are exploitable via the lightning connection. And being able to change your battery or your screen will not magically legitimize "honor killings" or prevent atheists from being open.

natch7• 7 years ago

OK it's true there are also more issues at play.

Since you mention battery, that's a big one. When Apple cannot control which batteries get swapped into their devices, their brand is at risk due to fires caused by bad batteries.

You can generalize this point to other components and quality in general. If people swap out third party parts, which some repair shops and end users will do to save money, the products end up looking bad and it damages Apple's reputation, which is valuable to them.

EliRivers• 7 years ago

The tradeoff here is between right to repair, and users having secure, trustworthy devices that will not spy on them.

I disagree. I suspect (but cannot prove right now) that right to repair would lead to devices becoming more secure, more trustworthy.

layoutIfNeeded• 7 years ago

So basically “think about the c̶h̶i̶l̶d̶r̶e̶n̶ gay/trans!”

natch7• 7 years ago

Nobody is forcing you to, but Apple is free to support the needs of all their users if they so choose.

benologist• 7 years ago

If there was a right to repair and Apple released three generations of bad laptops someone else could probably fix their mistake while they were still in the denial phase.

brensmith• 7 years ago

Ugh! As a former Apple fanboi, this is the reason I no longer own any Apple equipment. Apple products are beautiful, and very well designed, but so is a rhinestone straitjacket.

sigzero• 7 years ago

Let them repair but it should void any warranty.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC2• 7 years ago

Why exactly should a vendor not be responsible for the quality of its product just because they weren't hired to repair it?

mfatica• 7 years ago

Why should a vendor be responsible for any damages caused by unauthorized repairs using unknown methods and equipment?

ekianjo• 7 years ago

"When an electronic product breaks, consumers have a variety of repair options, including using an OEM's [original equipment manufacturer] authorized repair network."

Yeah, it's called taxing users for the defects you engineered in the first place. Look at how ridiculous the glued keyboard fiasco was with Apple, which refused to admit any guilt in their design for several years and charged users several hundred bucks for official repairs if they did not subscribe any special warranty.

Simulacra• 7 years ago

I agree and disagree. I think people should have the absolute right to repair and modify their devices, with or without an existing warranty. However to support that activity while forcing companies to honor the warranty feels wrong. It's like saying here, I screwed it up, now you fix it for free.

wayneftw• 7 years ago

I'd also like to see a "right to install" bill that targets all major computing device platforms.

Nobody should be able to sell devices to millions of people without giving those customers the ability to install their own software. There should be no arbitrary limits such as "you have to plug your device into another device every 7 days just to keep your custom software installed".

Apple is lobbying Californian lawmakers against 'Right to Repair' bill

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