Your iPhone inherently trusts many sites, including the government's
As a matter of course, virtually all the internet-capable hardware you use supports trusted certificates, or proofs that secure data connections (such as those for apps and websites) should be legitimate. Have you ever wondered exactly how much faith your gadgets place in others, however? Thanks to Karl Kornel, we now have a good sense of how iOS 8 devices fare -- and apparently, they trust a lot of organizations. Apple's latest mobile software has no less than 222 certificates that greenlight data sharing. Most of these are from companies you'd expect to oversee security on iPads and iPhones, including Symantec's various brands (35 certificates) and Apple itself (five). However, there are also quite a few governments that also get iOS' all-clear in certain circumstances, including China, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey and the US.
This level of trust isn't necessarily bad; you're going to need at least some of these certificates to get things done, such as checking your email or logging into a social networking app. With that said, Kornel is concerned that you can't turn off any of the certificates if you're concerned about the potential for abuse. Governments could theoretically use their credentials to spoof other websites and break into your phone for surveillance purposes, as an example. Whether or not that actually happens, Kornel is quick to note that Apple is at least being transparent by disclosing this info in a support page. You can easily find this info on Android devices, but it's harder to know what level of security you'll get in advance. Whichever platform you run, it's reasonable to suggest that you should be cautious -- don't take promises of security at face value.
