Government

Tim Cook visits Irish government to talk tax evasion

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 31, 2014

Apple CEO Tim Cook flew to Ireland today to meet with the country's government officials and tour the company's corporate office. Although the meeting agenda was shrouded in secrecy, media reported Cook and the head of government discussed tax loopholes and a change in the Irish laws that should prevent firms like Apple and Google to avoid declaring tax residency in either the U.S. or Ireland.

A loophole in Ireland's corporate tax laws has enabled many of the world's top corporations to operate as virtually stateless firms, ungoverned by any nation’s taxing authority...

Apple to participate in ConnectED program to help bring high-speed Internet to U.S. schools

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2017

Apple, along with other Silicon Valley titans such as Microsoft and carriers like Verizon and Sprint, is going to work with the United States government to help connect schools on America with high-speed broadband Internet. The Obama administration wants to connect as much as 99 percent of schools to high-speed Internet over the next four years and companies like Apple should help advance that effort...

Rovio denies wrongdoing in NSA’s snooping of Angry Birds players, but…

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

A report yesterday by The New York Times and other news organizations has provided yet another unsettling glimpse into the NSA's wide-ranging surveillance practices.

The speculation, based on information from documents provided by the NSA leaker Edward Snowden, suggests that the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ have been collecting private user data from mobile apps, in real time, as it travels across the Internet.

Profile data being collected from popular games such as Rovio’s Angry Birds typically includes age, location and gender, the allegations go. And with games that show ads, the agencies are also able to intercept users' surprisingly detailed advertising profiles, mining it for new information...

Apple provides update on National Security Orders and account information requests

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 7, 2017

Apple has posted an update to information pertaining to national security and law enforcement orders, confirming that it's been working closely with the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the Department of Justice to "advocate for greater transparency with regard to the national security orders we receive".

Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly touched on the topic in an interview with ABC’s David Muir, saying the NSA does not have access to Apple's servers as the snooping agency would have to “cart us out in a box” for that kind of access (those are his exact words)...

Short video from Obama’s recent meeting with Tim Cook and other tech execs

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

As we reported yesterday, Tim Cook and a number of other executives from prominent tech companies met with US President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss a wide range of government and tech-related topics.

Among the topics were said to be the recent struggles with the rollout of the healthcare.gov website and privacy concerns regarding government surveillance. And this afternoon, a short video of the meeting surfaced on the web...

President Obama meeting with Tim Cook and others over NSA and health care website

Cody Lee ∙ December 16, 2013

The White House has announced that President Obama is scheduled to meet with a number of tech executives tomorrow to discuss a wide range of subjects. Two of the big topics on the menu are said to be the NSA and the troubled HealthCare.gov website.

In addition, the group—which includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Twitter's Dick Costolo, Netflix's Reed Hastings, and Dropbox's Drew Houston—will discuss ways the Obama administration can partner with the tech sector to create new jobs and grow the economy...

Leaked document shows White House in favor of banning unlocking, jailbreaking

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

The last we heard, things were looking good in the fight to reform out-of-date policies on device unlocking here in the US. Last week, the FCC chairman sent a letter to the CTIA saying he'd like to see changes made before the holidays. But don't get your hopes up just yet.

According to information recently leaked by WikiLeaks, the White House—despite publicly supporting unlocking—has been secretly negotiating a treaty with other countries and special interest lobbyists that would make this and other processes illegal by international law...

NYPD encouraging iPhone and iPad users to update to iOS 7

Cody Lee ∙ September 22, 2013

The above image was posted to Twitter yesterday by World Bank's Jim Rosenberg, with the caption: the New York Police Department has a message for you iPhone and iPad folks.

Apparently, the NYPD has been handing out fliers at subway exits and in front of Apple Stores, encouraging people to upgrade to iOS 7 for its new ‘Activation Lock’ security feature...

Apple’s ebook damages trial tentatively scheduled for May 2014

Cody Lee ∙ August 15, 2013

US District Court Judge Denise Cote sent out an order on Tuesday, made public last night, calling for all parties involved in Apple's e-book case to prepare for a damages trial set for May 2014. Apple could wind up owing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Back in June, Judge Cote found the Cupertino company guilty of conspiring with 5 major book publishers to raise the price of ebooks. At the time of the ruling, the court hadn't set dates for any of the follow-up hearings. But yesterday's order helps fill in the blanks...

President Obama outlines four government surveillance reform initiatives

Cody Lee ∙ August 9, 2013

Following a series of meetings with tech executives a government leaders this week, President Obama held a press conference this morning to describe his plan to assuage concerns among Americans and foreigners regarding the legality of US surveillance activities.

During his speech, the President said that the surveillance programs in use by government agencies right now are "operating in a way that prevents abuse." But the question for his administration, he posed, is how does it make "American people more comfortable?"

So he outlined the following four initiatives...

President Obama meets with Tim Cook and other tech execs to talk surveillance

Cody Lee ∙ August 9, 2013

According to a report from Politico, President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other tech executives yesterday for a closed-door discussion on government surveillance. The site says this was the second meeting of its kind this week.

Cook was joined by the likes of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, to talk about various surveillance strategies and tother topics such as the recent NSA PRISM program scandal...

Publishers file objection to DoJ’s e-book settlement proposal on Apple’s behalf

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this evening that the five book publishers who settled with the US government in the e-book antitrust case have filed an objection with the court on Apple's behalf.

In the filing, the companies argue that the Department of Justice's settlement proposal for Apple, which it submitted last week, would violate their settlement agreements they had before the trial began...