Go further: "We have never built a back door or master key"

The feature is not named "back door" or "master key". It's a feature of iMessage with various names such as "zero click".

Also note they have created features before that provides law enforcement access to data at different stages of a pipeline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMessage#Security_and_privacy

> It's a feature of iMessage with various names such as "zero click".

All web results for `imessage "zero click"` are about vulnerabilities/exploits. Are you claiming some of these are intentional, or what?

It's been used by state actors for years. May as well publish the API for it. These aren't rare and special flowers that are each artisanally discovered after searching for a million hours. And it is nicely packaged in an app that is used for something simple like text messages.

"An Israeli spyware company has reportedly cut access to its clients in Italy following allegations that its product was used to target critics of the Italian government.

"The move comes after WhatsApp alleged last week that spyware made by Paragon Solutions was used to target 90 WhatsApp users in two dozen countries, including journalists and civil society members.

"Italy's government confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that seven mobile phone users in the country had been targeted by spyware on WhatsApp, calling the incident "particularly serious"."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmzdjw24yo

Why are you quoting an article about WhatsApp after making a claim about iMessage and what Apple builds in?

(Not that the article has any evidence supporting the same claim about WhatsApp, either. In fact, the article describes WhatsApp/Meta claiming to have "disrupted" the spying and reporting it to the Italian government.)

Is it a big deal though? Context matters. Everyone knows you don't do business in China without bending a knee to the government in all things. If you don't you are shut down completely if you're lucky, imprisoned if not. Of course CCP has access to every device in China approaching very close to 100%

What are you saying, I'm in China it's completely false. There is very lax enforcement, and if there is enforcement, there's always an opportunity to bribe.

The communist party doesn't have "access" to a billion phones: what would they even do with all that garbage. They can ask Wechat what you send your friends, sure, and that's enough to police most crimes.

We don't have the budget or organizational acumen of the NSA.

Access != "saving it all, all the time" . If they determine you are an anti-CCP agent then they will get access to everything in your life, no warrants or requests involved.

Well, allegedly Apple could have designed, advised and tested the solution, and if a contractor builds it, then the statement is technically correct.

Apple (and many other organizations) contracts work out for liability reasons, this is not the first instance of it.

Also note the language - specifically a “back door” or “master key”. If you call it something else, literally anything else, the statement holds up.

Oops, I accidentally dropped this document on your desk marked CONFIDENTIAL. Please don't read it