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.
Ok, I'll play along. Suppose Tim Cook wakes up tomorrow and decides for some reason he wants me dead. How exactly does he do it?
Sorry for the Zoolander reference. I couldn't help it
Just imagine this: Tim Cook travel expenses amount to an half a million dollar per year.
travel expenses only.
A professional hit man costs between 1/100th and 1/33th of that.
Tim has to simply give up on a pair of new shoes that year.
On the other hand, we know that governments do this sort of thing all the time.
they simply have better tools than hitmen, but, for example
https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/former-ceo-of-ama...
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/clearly-lasik-co-f...
> 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
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?
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?"
"Tim Cook made me do it."
In what wonder world are you living?
I am simply saying that a man with 2 billion dollars in his bank account can do whatever he wants.
It is also pretty naive to think that Tim Cook expenses can be questioned by an Apple anonymous accountant.
of course this is all hypothetical, men like Tim Cook would never hire an hitman paying cash personally face to face.
> "You're charged with Murder 1, which is a capital offense in this state. Are you ready to die for $5000?"
> "Tim Cook made me do it."
at best that could legally qualify as insanity
But even assuming it costed 200 thousand dollars, would not change that for a Tim Cook it's a day's pay
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.
You're naïve. Less than 100 years ago the Pinkertons were still murdering workers and nothing happened to them.
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?
They are frequently subpoenaed for information, and turn over that data more often than not: https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html
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.
Another good example is the Dutch housing all the data in an building that was used to track down and kill the right people.
The data existing is the problem. The ideal situation is that there is no data.
ask Foxconn employees if that's true or not.