Thugs from Apple show up asking to search your house

[swag]

http://nyti.ms/d7FnqN

According to a report from Wired, at some point people identifying themselves as representatives of Apple visited the home of the man apparently trying to peddle the phone, asking to search the premises. Home visits seem a little more up the alley of the Church of Scientology, another nongovernmental organization preoccupied by secrecy.

Perhaps the law is on the side of Apple and that of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, California’s high-tech crimes task force, which served the search warrant (Apple is represented on the public agency’s board).

Perhaps Gizmodo was involved in the felony theft of property when it paid $5,000 and published photos and videos of the device.

Perhaps Jason Chen, the Gizmodo blogger who lost four computers and two servers to the police last week, is not protected by the California shield law intended to prevent the authorities from seizing journalists’ reporting materials without a subpoena (that matter is currently under consideration so the police and county attorneys have held off combing through the computers).

But those are a lot of assumptions, and regardless of how the law shakes out, the optics are horrible for Apple. Anybody with a kilobyte of common sense could have told Steve Jobs that the five minutes of pleasure that came from making a criminal complaint against journalists would be followed by much misery.

[leveymg]

1. Perhaps, this is just viral marketing meets "Cops"?

Wouldn't be the first time that a new product was "stolen" and the company reaped the free publicity.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. CA shield law should have kicked in, since he is a recognized industrial blogger

Apple has almost as much political power in northern CA as it does in China, which is to say lots. That they got this to happen does not surprise me. Their corporate ethics really are abysmal, right up there with cigarette companies. Cool design can not cover all they do and should excuse none of it.

I have helped several groups hardened themselves against this kind of attack. Its not all that hard to do but very inconvenient on a daily basis. However, there are simpler ways to make sure email can not be recovered and data irretrievable via a single search warrant.