Comment by chatmasta

Idk who Mike Hearn is, and I'm always hesitant to call people out on HN for exactly this reason... but I think OP's airbag analogy was perfectly fair, since it was referring to the Apple bug where you could become root by simply clicking "okay" instead of entering a password. [0] It was comical in its simplicity.

But that said, overall I agree with Mike, in that Apple is clearly committed to security of their users. It's one of the main reasons I buy Apple hardware for my mobile, personal and work devices. Nobody is forcing them to put so much effort into that security, either - they do it largely by choice, and it distinguishes them from other vendors whose business models are inherently in conflict with their customers (I don't want to buy a phone from a company that derives most of its revenue from facilitating psychological warfare between advertisers and me.)

But I've always found this security to come with interesting tradeoffs. On the one hand, I'm pro-privacy and pro-user. But certain security objectives can't be achieved without reducing privacy or increasing restrictions on the user. Over the years I've come to appreciate this tradeoff, and I think Apple does a good job of balancing it. While I certainly don't feel like the device is "fully mine," I do feel like I'm getting some extra security in exchange for giving up some freedom to tinker.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/macos...