Things at Apple seem to be going from bad to worse. From the company’s recent “War on Bitcoin,” to the major security flaw impacting virtually all its hardware from iPhones to Macs, Apple hasn’t done a single decent thing since Steve Jobs died.
Worst of all seems to be the company’s cozy relationship with the NSA and a complete disregard for user privacy and security. In order to push back against such behavior, a group of Apple shareholders, led by Restore the Fourth SF national liaison David Levitt, put forth a SpyLockout resolution. Key to this resolution is the following commitment:
The Spy Lockout plan is simple common sense for any company truly committed to data security. Adopt best practices for security and encryption, as recommended by experts like the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Keep third party equipment off our networks. Investigate and stop invasions of user privacy. And when cooperating with police, require a warrant of limited duration, for a specific person or thing, instead of bulk collection.
So what could be wrong with that? Well, apparently Apple directors found it so unacceptable that they decided to use their power to overrule the resolution.
Firedoglake did some excellent reporting on this story. They note that:
Cupertino — At Friday’s Apple shareholder meeting, Apple’s directors overruled an urgent, popular shareholder resolution entitled Spy Lockout, aimed at improving security and keeping NSA surveillance and other intruders out of Apple’s products and systems. The same morning, Apple co-Founder Steve Wozniak endorsed the SkyLockout initiative.
Apple had quietly advised shareholders in its January 10, 2014 Proxy Statement that directors Bruce Sewell and Peter Oppenheimer would exercise their discretionary voting authority — their ability to cast votes for on behalf of shareholders who toss their voting forms in the trash — to defeat the proposal, without citing any reason.
The proxy statement does not refer to the proposal as “Spy Lockout” but as a “Floor Proposal” that “if approved, would, among other things, ask the Board ‘to enact a policy to use technical methods and other best practices to protect user data.’”
Apple gave no indication why it would vote against a resolution to follow best practices recommended by industry technical experts and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to protect users.
from A Lightning War for Liberty http://ift.tt/NwID89
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