Dems target Apple. Again.
February 6, 2019 by Steven M. Peters
Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders want to curb buybacks, Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky want to dig into FaceTime.
From the Hill’s “House Dems demand answers from Apple on FaceTime bug”:
Top House Democrats are demanding answers from Apple CEO Tim Cook after a bug in the company’s FaceTime program allowed users to listen in on other devices even if their call hadn’t been accepted.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who leads the panel’s consumer protection subcommittee, wrote to Cook on Tuesday expressing concern about the vulnerability that Apple says it fixed last week…
“As a first step, we believe it is important for Apple to be transparent about its investigation into the Group FaceTime feature’s vulnerability and the steps it is taking to protect consumers’ privacy,” they wrote. “To date, we do not believe Apple has been as transparent as this serious issue requires.”
The flaw was discovered by a 14-year-old in Arizona on January 19, according to reports. More than a week later, Apple disabled the FaceTime Group feature where the bug was present and announced a fix on February 1.
My take: Apple always makes a juicy, camera-ready target for TV-hungry pols. Remember the Senate subcommittee’s 2013 probe of what chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) called Apple’s “Holy Grail of tax avoidance”? I do. From Mr. Cook came to Washington and escaped unscathed:
Claire McCaskill (D-MO) couldn’t say often enough how much she loved Apple. Ron Johnson (R-WI) praised the company’s tax minimization strategies as shareholder friendly. Rob Portman (R-OH) only wanted to talk about his tax reform proposals. Rand Paul (R-KT) thought the committee owed Apple an apology. John McCain (R-AZ), after a bout of tax dodging rhetoric, wanted to know why his iPhone was constantly updating its apps.
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