The company doesn't have a hundred thousand armed officers with the ability to arrest / kill me for anything they can claim they found. Government comes equipped with legal violence, the company comes equipped with targeted ads
It's true, they merely have enough cash on hand to fund a small army, enough legal power to crush you in court with anything you attempt.
Make no mistake: if Apple needed to get someone killed, they would. They're not some miraculous pinnacles of good in a sea of evil. It's just that they merely need to flex the law at you to destroy your life forever. Apple is no different, they'll hire the Pinkertons and break your fingers should they find the need to. Carnegie Steel did it, Apple's not above it either.
You lack creativity. You have multiple billions available for that. Where do you want your remains to disappear ? Hell, even sharks with lasers isn't far fetched with that amount of money.
But all playfulness aside:
* Pay professional hitmen.
* Pay a hobo enough to go beat you up in your home.
* Pay enough people enough money to kill you pretty much anywhere.
What are they going to do, plead in front of a judge that sees 90% of his murder cases unsolved or solved through guilty pleas that Tim Cook gave them a wad of cash when all they saw was a subordinate of a subordinate of a subordinate ? There's nothing fancy about it. Especially with an economy that drives people to drastic measures: a huge wad of cash that you're guaranteed to keep is enough for most people.
You mean, pay an undercover cop who is advertising himself as a professional hitman?
> * Pay a hobo enough to go beat you up in your home.
He'll pay the hobo, and hobo will run off with the money
> all they saw was a subordinate of a subordinate of a subordinate
This is even more crazy than the earlier suggestions. You think there is going to be a chain of subordinates at apple who will all go along with a murder conspiracy? Try arranging a surprise party with five people, see how well people can keep a secret.
"My favorite multinational trillion dollar worth conglomerate that has a history of not caring about human rights when it comes to the production of their devices surely would never do that!"
You're naïve. Less than 100 years ago the Pinkertons were still murdering workers and nothing happened to them.
Depends on your crime. If you outed his human rights overlook, then he will send you on a vacation to the place with the Human rights violation. And somehow you will get in trouble with the mob there because for some reason they don't like you for threatening their jobs.
If you don't take his vacation offer, he will invite you to a party on his dime. If you don't attend, he will use your location data, make it seem like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And depending on the severity and nature of your crime, the outcome will be just low ball enough to make it seem like apple needs to do something bigger than focus on human rights, like making better devices for your security.
It doesn't even have to be good. It can be a "robbery" where you get professional-grade double-tapped on your front lawn but nothing's taken, or a "suicide" where you hang yourself from a tree whilst simultaneously shotgunning yourself in the chest. The news will just parrot the local cops' PR statement.
Are you saying that the internal accounting controls at Apple are so lax that Tim Cook can pay contractors off the books out of his own travel expenses?
I also imagine the post-arrest interview of the $5000 hitman going like this:
"You're charged with Murder 1, which is a capital offense in this state. Are you ready to die for $5000?"
Yes, misuse and misappropriation of funds is such an uncommon event for fortune 500 companies. Especially the CEO, they have to justify every little expense!
> we know that governments do this sort of thing all the time.
they also have better tools than hiring hitmen
contract killing is a fraction of all the homicides
OP asked how the multi billionaire CEO of a trillion dollars company could kill someone
He could simply hire an hitman, it would cost him peanuts
If the victim is also using one of the products the company makes, they would also be in possession of all the information an hitman would need to complete his task, no investigation would be necessary
Costs vary: In Australia, contract offers ranged from $500 to $100,000, with an average of $16,500. One undercover investigator, hired as a hit man more than 60 times in 20 years, lists his largest proposed payoff as $200,000 in jewels (and that was just the down payment) and his stingiest as “seven Atari computer games, three dollar bills, and $2.30 in nickels and dimes.”
Some of the highest-profile hits nowadays happen in Russia, where the rise of wild-west capitalism has led to a boom in contract killings, with victims including politicians, editors and journalists, businessmen, even poets.
How much do you think it would cost to hire a Russian blackop/elite troop fleeing from his country?
There are plenty of unhinged people in this world who do illegal shit for enough money. Do you think some Ex-Wagner mercenary would pass up that offer?
If they choose to sure, but I dont see what incentive they would have. After all, the post is about a company removing products from a market rather than being subject to a law that would allow the gov to force them to do so.
All of these are their own accord. That's even what OP's article is about - if Apple is legally required to break their encryption in the EU, then they will discontinue their product.
Let's not pretend this is a privacy-motivated decision. Where Apple doesn't have negotiating power (eg. China) they have been forced to compromise user safety and privacy[0]. We live in a post XKeyscore world, pretending like this doesn't also happen in America or the UK is a bedtime story for helpless capitalists.
Which is a good reason to avoid giving your data to either one in the first place. If I don't have a choice though, I'll take the company over the government any day.
Downvoters: instead of reflexively downvoting, why not try reading? Here is some recent history:
Blood for Bananas: United Fruit's Central American Empire [0]
The lawyer who took on Chevron – and now marks his 600th day under house arrest [1]
(Debatable) Business Plot, aka Wall St Putsch [2]
WTF? I can buy a phone from another company if I disagree with Apple's approach, or use no phone at all. Try doing that with your government sometime and see how it goes for you.
Nobody worries about the government giving customer data to Apple, do they? Why do you suppose that might be?
