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Old 3rd March 2016
J65nko J65nko is offline
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Default Amazon Quietly Removes Encryption Support from its Gadgets

From http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ama...es-and-tablets :

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While Apple is fighting the FBI in court over encryption, Amazon quietly disabled the option to use encryption to protect data on its Android-powered devices.

The tech giant has recently deprecated support for device encryption on the latest version of Fire OS, Amazon’s custom Android operating system, which powers its tablets and phones. In the past, privacy-minded users could protect data stored inside their devices, such as their emails, by scrambling it with a password, which made it unreadable in case the device got lost or stolen. With this change, users who had encryption on in their Fire devices are left with two bad choices: either decline to install the update, leaving their devices with outdated software, or give up and keep their data unencrypted.
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Old 4th March 2016
jjstorm jjstorm is offline
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Maybe this is why?

Microsoft also recently announced that Apple should comply with the court order without challenge. The fact is, that neither Amazon nor Microsoft have a dog in the game. Windows Phone has been a major failure, and for the most part, so have Amazon gadgets. Both of these companies are starving for government contracts.

Many Silicon valley companies are backing Apple however.

Last edited by jjstorm; 4th March 2016 at 03:38 PM.
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Old 5th March 2016
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I can't speak to the gadgets or e-commerce side of Amazon, but I can say that AWS proper is far from "starving" in the government contract department.
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Old 5th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rocket357 View Post
I can't speak to the gadgets or e-commerce side of Amazon, but I can say that AWS proper is far from "starving" in the government contract department.
+1

For small guys like me AWS is the only way to comply with the government security regulations
when bidding for the contracts.

Last edited by Oko; 6th March 2016 at 01:45 AM.
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Old 5th March 2016
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Looks like they're putting it back.

http://fortune.com/2016/03/05/amazon...re-encryption/
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Old 5th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rocket357 View Post
I can't speak to the gadgets or e-commerce side of Amazon, but I can say that AWS proper is far from "starving" in the government contract department.

Maybe I over did it by implying starving, but they are certainly looking to expand and keep what they have.

It was all over the news about what a huge failure Amazon's fire phone was. Amazon even admitted they got stuck with $83 million in inventory of the fire phone.

I think their position on encryption is guided by the fact that they don't really sell many phones, or tablets for that matter, and the fact that they are looking to expand their cloud service with governments. The same thing can be said about Microsoft basically.

Business is what matters most, however, it looks like they received such a backlash, that they are bringing encryption back.
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Old 5th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjstorm View Post
Maybe I over did it by implying starving, but they are certainly looking to expand and keep what they have.
Yes, and yes. Any business wants to keep what it has and expand if possible. It's called business =)

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Originally Posted by jjstorm View Post
I think their position on encryption is guided by the fact that they don't really sell many phones, or tablets for that matter, and the fact that they are looking to expand their cloud service with governments.
AWS was only 7% of Amazon's revenue in 2015. You can see that here:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External...R5cGU9MQ==&t=1

I'm curious where you get your estimate of the number of tablets Amazon sells...I work *for Amazon* and I don't have access to those numbers, so I'm curious where you got them.
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Old 6th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjstorm View Post
Maybe this is why?

Microsoft also recently announced that Apple should comply with the court order without challenge. The fact is, that neither Amazon nor Microsoft have a dog in the game. Windows Phone has been a major failure, and for the most part, so have Amazon gadgets. Both of these companies are starving for government contracts.

Many Silicon valley companies are backing Apple however.
They said they removed it because no one was using it.

I believe that. Why shouldn't I?

Not everything is about a secret plot a-la X-Files. In the real world, Scully would almost always be right and Mulder would almost always be wrong.
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Old 6th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rocket357 View Post
Thanks for posting the link to that document bro! I find it very useful for some decision we are making in my Lab.
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Old 6th March 2016
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Originally Posted by Oko View Post
Thanks for posting the link to that document bro! I find it very useful for some decision we are making in my Lab.
No problem, Oko.

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Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
In the real world, Scully would almost always be right and Mulder would almost always be wrong.
Absolutely love this quote. Well said =)
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Old 6th March 2016
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Quote:
In the real world, Scully would almost always be right and Mulder would almost always be wrong.
To play the role of Devil's advocate , the key words are almost always. There is an occasional conspiracy. Although Amazon hardly seems important enough to be the centre of one with earth-shaking consequences.
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Old 6th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sacerdos_daemonis View Post
To play the role of Devil's advocate , the key words are almost always. There is an occasional conspiracy. Although Amazon hardly seems important enough to be the centre of one with earth-shaking consequences.
Sure. Watergate was a conspiracy, the contra affair was a conspiracy, arguably we could call the Snowden leaks a conspiracy.

And what do all of them have in common?

We know about it.
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Old 7th March 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sacerdos_daemonis View Post
Amazon hardly seems important enough to be the centre of one with earth-shaking consequences.
That seems fair, until it comes to light that Amazon has been contacted by aliens asking if Prime covers interstellar deliveries =)

And for any serious conspiracy theorists out there, that was a joke.
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