alt Hacker News"However, it appears the defendant did not have that setting enabled, which, in turn, seemingly allowed the system to store the content in the database."
"[A]llowing the system to store the content in the database" where a third party, such as Apple or a government, can access it is the default
Only a small minority of users know about settings and how to change them. The vast majority of users do not change default settings. Apple knows this
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If you care about security at all, you disable any previews on the lock screen. The lock screen is by definition visible to anyone without any authorization. Showing anything on it immediately destroys any secrecy. It must be obvious to anyone capable of elementary logic inference.
If you don't know how to disable it, you use your favorite search engine / LLM / knowledgeable relative to find out, and disable it.
But if you just didn't pay attention, "never thought about it", you don't care about security, and no amount of technical means would help, sorry.
Imagine a parallel universe where stories about use of personal computers were written from a different perspective. For example,
"However, it appears Apple's system uses a default setting which, in turn, seemingly allowed it to store the defandant's content in Apple's database"
instead of
"However, it appears the defendant did not have that setting enabled which, in turn, seemingly allowed the system to stoire the content in the database"
In the later version, the defendant, namely his inaction in not changing a default setting, appears solely responsible for the outcome. And the actor that placed a copy of his incoming messages in a database that the actor created is referred to as "the system", not the corporation that wrote the system and sold the computer with this system pre-instaalled
> Only a small minority of users know about settings and how to change them.
I couldn't believe this so went to look up some data on this.
Holy FUCK that is bleak. There needs to be way more computer education, not just "how2type" classes.
“Only a small minority of users know about settings and how to change them. The vast majority of users do not change default settings.”
Even worse, whatever critical settings you may set as a sophisticated user will frequently be reset, or changed, or re-organized under different settings… And of course, set back to insecure defaults… With subsequent software updates.
This is a regular occurrence with Firefox and privacy settings.
Whatever the actual impetus is, we should act as if this is intentional.