> The big question for me is how and why Tim Cook and Apple's board signed off on a plan to do huge damage to Apple's reputation and user trust. If they didn't know, it's a problem. If they knew and didn't realize the inevitable backlash, well that's a different problem.

Comments like this make me wonder how in touch HN is with the average person because I genuinely don't believe most people care or even know that this is happening. I may be wrong but Apple could've pretended this backlash doesn't exist and did nothing about it and they would lose nothing for it.