When the court says “unduly burdensome” are they thinking about the impact on Apple if they can bypass the security they have been promising customers they can't bypass? (I'm assuming that when the government says they “cannot gain access to any data stored on the device” they mean they can see the data, but it is encrypted.)

Federal magistrate gives Apple a chance to respond to order to bypass phone security

JAMES ORENSTEIN, Magistrate Judge:

In a sealed application filed on October 8, 2015, the government asks the court to issue an order pursuant to the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, directing Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) to assist in the execution of a federal search warrant by disabling the security of an Apple device that the government has lawfully seized pursuant to a warrant issued by this court. Law enforcement agents have discovered the device to be locked, and have tried and failed to bypass that lock. As a result, they cannot gain access to any data stored on the device notwithstanding the authority to do so conferred by this court’s warrant. Application at 1. For the reasons that follow, I defer ruling on the application and respectfully direct Apple to submit its views in writing, no later than October 15, 2015, as to whether the assistance the government seeks is technically feasible and, if so, whether compliance with the proposed order would be unduly burdensome. If either the government or Apple wishes to present oral argument on the matter, I will hear such argument on October 22, 2015, at 12:00 noon.

Read more of his memorandum and order here (via Cryptome).

Read media coverage on his order from Ellen Nakashima of Washington Post.

Ha! Told you that's how it had to be done. The computer can be trusted to match all the data to a single individual, but then keep that individuals identity private. Yes it could make some relationships difficult to communicate, but those are very unique circumstances.

Differential Privacy: Safely Sharing and Studying Sensitive Data

If you’ve been meaning to read bit on differential privacy, you might want to read this article from the National Science Foundation:

… When planning a study, data scientists need to balance their desire to uncover new knowledge with the privacy of the people whom the data represent.

[…]

Salil Vadhan, a professor of computer science at Harvard University and former director of the Center of Research on Computation and Society, is among the researchers exploring an approach known as “differential privacy” that allows one to investigate data without revealing confidential information about participants. Initially introduced by Cynthia Dwork, Frank McSherry, Kobbi Nissim and Adam Smith, among others, in the mid-2000s, researchers continue to develop the concept today to apply it for real-world problems.

As the lead researcher for the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported “Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data,” Vadhan and his team at Harvard are developing a new computer system that acts as a trusted curator — and identity protector — of sensitive, valuable, data. (The Sloan Foundation and Google, Inc. are providing the project with additional support.)

Read more on ScientificComputing.com

How messed up was it before? I do like the “standard wording” sections of the breach notification.

Three-Bill Package Makes Revisions to California’s Data-Breach Notification Statute

Brandon Johnson writes:

On October 6, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a trio of bills that is intended to clarify key elements of the state’s data-breach notification statute and provide guidance to persons, businesses, and state and local agencies that deal with electronically stored personal information. The bills, which were passed together as a single legislative package, will take effect on January 1, 2016.

Read more about Assembly Bill 964 (A.B. 964), Senate Bill 570 (S.B. 570), and Senate Bill 34 (S.B. 34) on Covington & Burling InsidePrivacy.

Always the problem with “a little” censorship. Apple could have chosen to create 178 unique systems to conform to rules in 178 countries. It's possibly cheaper to cut a country off rather than constantly update the topics your can't deliver.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/11/9494429/apple-reportedly-blocks-access-to-apple-news-in-china

Apple reportedly blocks access to Apple News in China

It appears Apple is choosing to outright block its news app in China rather than implement a system to censor stories that would earn it the ire of Beijing. A source has confirmed to The New York Times that the company has blocked users in China from accessing Apple News, which offers an iOS-optimized way to read stories from around the web.

Something to watch? More insight into Twitter and possibly a reason to join?

https://stratechery.com/2015/twitters-moment/

Twitter’s Moment

… It was a bit disconcerting when, during the conference call to announce the appointment of Jack Dorsey as CEO, Lead Independent Director Peter Currie, Dorsey, and newly promoted COO Adam Bain brought up Project Lightning, an internal project that was bizarrely revealed to BuzzFeed by Costolo just days before his departure; at the time it was hard to see the pre-announcement as anything other than a last ditch attempt to save his job, and one wondered if the mentions on the conference call had a similar motivation: give Wall Street something, anything, to hold onto, even if jacking up expectations would hurt the new product when it launched.

Well, the product launched…and it’s fantastic. Moreover, it’s not only that it’s fantastic from a product perspective — actually, there is a lot to nitpick — but that it is fantastic from a strategic perspective.

The Product

Moments has three components:

• When you first tap the Moments tab at the bottom of the Twitter app

you’re dropped into the ‘Today’ view that lists a mishmash of stories that, well, happened today.

Touch any of the stories to get a curated list of tweets that tell the story in question through videos, images, and sometimes just text. It’s a really great experience, and I found the sports stories with their combination of highlights and tweeted reactions particularly enjoyable

• For any Moment in progress, you can tap a button to add tweets about that Moment to your main timeline. Crucially, though, those tweets only persist for the duration of the event in question; the ‘Unfollow’, which is the most essential action when it comes to building a Twitter feed you actually read, is done for you

• Finally, in what was probably the biggest surprise in the product, there is a carousel at the top leading to more focused categories: Each of these categories includes not only ‘News’ or ‘Entertainment’ Moments that just happened, but also more timeless content, particularly in ‘Fun.’ Look carefully at those category titles, though — they sure look familiar: That’s right, Twitter just reinvented the newspaper. It’s not just any newspaper though — it has the potential to be the best newspaper in the world.

Another example of “Big Data” even if the user's think it's normal.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3051883/behind-the-brand/the-bloomberg-terminal

How the Bloomberg Terminal Made History—And Stays Ever Relevant

… Unlike the PC or the Mac, the Terminal has always catered to a niche—investors and other finance professionals—which is why most people have never seen one in person. But it's one of the industry's few truly enduring successes.

… The Bloomberg Terminal of today—which, speaking more precisely, is a service known as Bloomberg Professional—provides more than 325,000 subscribers with everything from an array of information on financial matters to a chat system to the ability to actually execute trades. It processes 60 billion pieces of information from the market a day.