The Way You Ask The Questions Matters: Reuters Poll Says People Support Apple Against FBI, But It's All In The Questions
from the stupid-questions,-stupid-answers dept
Earlier this week, we highlighted a questionable poll done by the Pew Research folks concerning the Apple/FBI fight, and noted that the actual questions it asked were wrong and misleading (and also leading...) and that resulted in fairly meaningless results, which were then spun by reporters into false claims that the public backed the FBI in this fight:Apple is opposing a court order to unlock a smart phone that was used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack. Apple is concerned that if it helps the FBI this time, it will be forced to help the government in future cases that may not be linked to national security, opening the door for hackers and potential future data breaches for smartphone users. Do you agree or disagree with Apple’s decision to oppose the court order?And, to refresh your memory, here's how Pew asked it:
As you may know, RANDOMIZE: [the FBI has said that accessing the iPhone is an important part of their ongoing investigation into the San Bernardino attacks] while [Apple has said that unlocking the iPhone could compromise the security of other users’ information] do you think Apple [READ; RANDOMIZE]?Notice that the Reuters/Ipsos version focuses solely on the downsides laid out by Apple, and not the supposed intent of the FBI. The Pew poll tries to "balance" the two. Meanwhile both polls get the basic facts wrong, because the request is not to "unlock a smart phone" because Apple cannot "unlock it." The actual ask is that it build a new operating system (which has some big challenges) that has purposely undermined two key security features on the iPhone, so that the FBI can then hack the passcode and access the phone. The specifics here matter and neither poll gets them right.
(1) Should unlock the iPhone (2) Should not unlock the iPhone (3) Don't Know.
So while I, personally, think Apple is the one to support in this fight, I don't think either poll really says much about anything, other than that depending on how you word a poll, you can get very, very different results. That's really not particularly interesting as it pertains to the actual debate here. Stupid polls get stupid answers.
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Filed Under: doj, fbi, iphone, polling, privacy, questions, security
Companies: apple, ipsos, pew research, reuters
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bad poll...
Should the government be allowed to decrypt and recover your dick pics to stop terrorism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
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Just like these two polls.
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Re:
Just the act of choosing what story to run and not run creates a bias itself.
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Just the act of choosing what story to run and not run creates a bias itself.
I find your comment to be highly biased.
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Now its now part of every courtroom in America sitting on the desk before every prosecuting attorney.
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Fixed it?
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This is the third time in as many days that I've heard/seen ask used as a noun. What is going on? Is question or request too onerous to type now?
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nMaxFailBeforeWipe++;
From the iOS codebase?
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The question is not the difficulty, but can the FBI compel a software compare to write code to make their job a lot easier.
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Wasted money
Spending nothing on terrorism would probably be a bad move, but the billions spent on terrorism today save a minuscule number of lives.
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Re: Wasted money
It is all about control and power.
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Zero-dollar budget on the War on Terror
I bet if we spent zero on terrorism, and treated acts of terror as just nasty violent crimes (the way we regard domestic terror), and could agree as a society that terror is an elemental effect like natural disasters, and we should just prepare to suffer terror once in a while...
...that not only would we relax better as a society but the terror effort from the Islamic State would dry up inside a couple of years.
They do it because we are terrorized. They do it because we throw massive amounts of money and resources to fighting it. They do it because our reactions give them recognition as a legitimate enemy.
They do it because it makes spectacular news in which they are down- and center-stage.
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Re: Zero-dollar budget on the War on Terror
And this applies to the FBI too (and the rest of the security theater). FBI even make fake terrorists regularly. IS and FBI share an interest in a scared US population.
IMHO, it should be enough crime to keep FBI occupied without these scams. There is hundreds of thousands of rape kits laying waiting to be analyzed in the US.
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P.I.S.S.E.D.
Peoples Initiative for Securely Stored Encrypted Data or:
PISSED
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