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WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

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Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#41

Post by smegel »

caf wrote: post #38
smegel wrote: post #32

What does the USA do about WhatsApp? Do they really tolerate end to end encryption they cant subpoena the company for...or does the NSA have a big fat pipe into the WhatsApp data-center?

If the end-to-end encryption is working as designed then "a big fat pipe into the WhatsApp data-center" would be of no help. For high enough value targets the NSA is probably happy to compromise the endpoints.

True, I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that.

I guess the recent case with the FBI and the iPhone shows what will happen if they want messages badly enough.

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#43

Post by Aelinsaar »

walrus01 wrote: post #35
Aelinsaar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that one way or another, WhatsApp isn't foiling the NSA if the NSA doesn't feel like being foiled. Then again, they may realize what most of us do, which is that WhatsApp is not exactly a terrorist hotbed.

NSA will simply pwn the endpoint devices of whoever they're really interested in.

I want to believe that. I want to believe that the NSA, while having no respect for the law, does at least care about results. It would make a lot more sense to tap devices of interesting people, than this idea of bulk collection (which leads to just a lot more noise).

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#44

Post by davesque »

chatmasta wrote: post #39

> the idea that everyone in Brazil can be denied the freedom to communicate the way they want is very scary in a democracy If companies like Facebook were not funneling everybody onto centralized platforms, it would be harder for an ISP to deny that freedom. The centralization of communication platforms is a bigger problem than any ISP censorship. That they have a target to shutdown at all is the real issue.

Agreed. Zuckerberg's little victory speech in this post reminds me of the kind of talk he used in defending his free basics plan. I get a little tired of people with heavy business interests weighing in on "democracy" and "freedom."

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#45

Post by marcosdumay »

lucastx wrote: post #30

We dodged this bullet but here in Brazil but RIGHT NOW there is a much more dangerous risk: with the Parliamentary Commission on Cybercrimes (CPI dos Crimes Cibernéticos / CPICIBER) report a "combo" of bills will get "fast track" on Congress and, to list some things, expand data retention, allow access to IP addresses without warrant and allow judges to block "illegal" content, including copyright violations much lik…

Your page isn't clear, what exactly happens tomorrow? Is it the final voting on the CPI? Or is there some law project under vote right now?

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#46

Post by lucb1e »

> the idea that everyone in Brazil can be denied the freedom to communicate the way they want is very scary in a democracy

Says the person (in name of the company, I assume) whose company blocks things they don't "like", such as messages containing telegram.org or telegram.me[1].

Now Facebook is not a democracy and they can block and censor pretty much any message they like, but now they go on to tell Brazil how it should run its judicial system. That's like giving people free beer and then asking them to take up pitchforks and come along to put some pressure on a third party you don't like very much.

[1] https://i.snag.gy/9KBPGR.jpg

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#48

Post by lucastx »

marcosdumay wrote: post #45
lucastx wrote: post #30

We dodged this bullet but here in Brazil but RIGHT NOW there is a much more dangerous risk: with the Parliamentary Commission on Cybercrimes (CPI dos Crimes Cibernéticos / CPICIBER) report a "combo" of bills will get "fast track" on Congress and, to list some things, expand data retention, allow access to IP addresses without warrant and allow judges to block "illegal" content, including copyright violations much lik…

Your page isn't clear, what exactly happens tomorrow? Is it the final voting on the CPI? Or is there some law project under vote right now?

I'll work on a quick article today to explain this and adapt the page to reflect that. Thanks for the tips. Answering you quickly (I'm preparing dinner :-)):

- Tomorrow, the CPI decides their final report (after three drafts and a couple separate patches) on all the inquiries the commission made the last months. This report includes "recommendations" to some existing draft bills and proposes a number of other bills.

- Parliamentaries presented "destaques" that will be voted separately and may supress the "IP blocking for illegal content" and "notification-based removal of illegal content" bills.

- The final report as of now is the first link with a small patch on the Projeto de Lei 1.6 made by the second link.

http://www.camara.gov.br/proposicoesWeb/prop_mostrarintegra?...

http://www2.camara.leg.br/atividade-legislativa/comissoes/co...

EDIT TO APPEND:

TL;DR: The two bills that we may realistically remove through the help of friendly parliamentaries tomorrow are the ones about illegal website blocking (ISP blacklisting) and content removal through notification; both open the door for criminalizing remixes and using copyright infringement for censorship.

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#49

Post by br_smartass »

antisthenes wrote: post #13

Out of curiosity, what did Brazil use before WhatsApp existed? It seems strange to me that 1 app can capture such an overwhelming majority, because it's just a client, of which there have always been dozens if not hundreds.

Brasilians are social-network junkies... Whatsapp was 'the messaging app' around the time where just about everybody got a smartphone so it just caught on, and there are groups for everything(and there's a lot of porn) and a lot of stuff goes viral through it(I've received Lula's lawyer wiretapped call through groups, for example) and then businesses started using it too, putting their "zaps" on billboards and etc. Before Whatsapp it was Facebook, Orkut, MSN..

Re: WhatsApp is back online in Brazil

#50

Post by saganus »

caf wrote: post #38
smegel wrote: post #32

What does the USA do about WhatsApp? Do they really tolerate end to end encryption they cant subpoena the company for...or does the NSA have a big fat pipe into the WhatsApp data-center?

If the end-to-end encryption is working as designed then "a big fat pipe into the WhatsApp data-center" would be of no help. For high enough value targets the NSA is probably happy to compromise the endpoints.

Can't it be e2e encryption with WhatsApp keeping a copy of the private keys? or does e2e enc implicitly means the private keys are never exchanged?
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