[NewsPoster]

In new remarks the head of AT&T has said that encryption standards for personal data privacy should be left up to Congress rather than tech companies. CEO Randall Stephenson -- who's own company has been widely accused of assisting the NSA and other agencies mass-harvest telecommunications data on Americans not under any form of suspicion -- told the Wall Street Journal that he doesn't think "it is Silicon Valley's decision to make about whether encryption is the right thing to do."

"I understand Tim Cook's decision, but I don't think it's his decision to make," he elaborated. While he claimed that it was "silliness" to say that there was a "conspiracy" between the US government and AT&T to siphon telephone and internet data -- much of which passes through AT&T backbone lines, to spy agencies -- "I personally think that this is an issue that should be decided by the American people and Congress, not by companies." Currently, two states -- New York and California -- are looking at bills mandating "back doors" or disallowing sales of encrypted smartphones.

Cook, Apple volunteers help renovate school for MLK holiday

Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook and hundreds of other employees celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by volunteering time to help renovate Santee Elementary School in San Jose, California. Santee Elementary, not coincidentally, is a school where students have iPads for school use, and teachers receive either MacBooks or iPads for assistance in teaching. Cook tweeted that he was "proud to volunteer beside hundreds of Apple employees honoring #MLKDay at ConnectED partner Santee Elementary."

Proud to volunteer beside hundreds of Apple employees honoring #MLKDay at ConnectED partner Santee Elementary. pic.twitter.com/3EOmcPkovh

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 18, 2016

He posted two pictures of the event, with one showing students about to paint a campus building, while another shows Cook and another Apple volunteer working on some repairs. As with many schools across the nation, the official observance of the civil rights pioneer's birthday is a holiday. MLK Day was observed on Monday, though King was actually born on January 15. The ConnectED initiative is a business and government partnership aimed at providing high-speed Internet to schools, particularly those in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

[pastusza]

Shouldn't the standards for personal privacy be up to the individual? You have a RIGHT to privacy.

[Charles Martin]

Well, actually, that's the core of the whole debate. There's no word or EXPLICIT right of privacy in the Constitution, but a very strong implicit one. Not that these lunkheads have ever read the Constitution, but one hopes the courts will remind them at some point. We had a lively discussion about this on the current episode of The MacNN Podcast, take a listen!

[Flying Meat]

No. You do NOT leave encryption standards up to the government. Why not give your extra set of keys to the crook that's been casing your house for the last few days? Don't forget to tell them when you'll be on vacation without the alarm turned on.

The government did have a say in encryption standards. They sucked at it.

[Charles Martin]

Also, Mr. Stephenson is a flat-out liar: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html?_r=0

[climacs]

Ordinarily I dislike dragging partisan politics into what seem to be non-related matters, but this is definitely related. Roe v. Wade was decided primarily on the grounds of the implicit right to privacy in the Constitution. Those who are opposed to abortion seek to reverse this decision by any means necessary, up to and including denying that there is any constitutional right to privacy on the grounds of "textual originalism". It is certain that at least two SCOTUS justices would agree with this reasoning. So your general right to privacy could well become a casualty of the fight over abortion if the other side gets its way.