Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

cbc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 200 posts

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#181

Post by nasredin »

simonh wrote: post #69
lovelearning wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. I find it inexplicable that while our species has progressed so much after 6000 years of civilization, one thing that doesn't seem to have changed is the desire of large sections of people to be led by oppressive maniacs. It's almost like many of us just love handing away our freedoms. Have sociologists studied this phenomenon?

I think it’s that many of us just love handing away other people’s freedoms. ‘They’ are the ones we’re oppressing, ‘they’ deserve it. It’s seen as an easy shortcut to oppress ‘them’. Then you get the Syrian Christians who voted for Trump in droves because if his anti-Muslim stance, but who’s communities are being gutted by deportations because it turns out all the laws being used against Syrian Muslim immigrants appl…

I get amusement from these people, the people who voted against their interest WRT Trump and now reap the consequences.

What is a proper term for this?

I don't want to use "schadenfreude", the "enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others".

That is way too broad. I only "enjoy" the suffering of Trump supporters. (And only if it's not serious. And "enjoy" is probably not the right word.)

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#182

Post by louithethrid »

mbrumlow wrote: post #72

This seems to be a growing trend, mostly in journalism; Blame technology. Just recently there was a article going around about how Google's search algorithm was at fault of keeping two sisters apart. And entire multi page write up on how our lives are at the whims of computers and algorithms. Then to be told that the one sister could not find the other because she changes her name online to protect her identity. Now…

I might get flack for it- but we did get by without this technology level before- and we might do so again.

Also im against this view of the people beeing some puppets easily swayed, they might ralley behind people yelling for a downfall - because technology actually changed theire lives for the worse en mass?

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#183

Post by zghst »

mbrumlow wrote: post #72

This seems to be a growing trend, mostly in journalism; Blame technology. Just recently there was a article going around about how Google's search algorithm was at fault of keeping two sisters apart. And entire multi page write up on how our lives are at the whims of computers and algorithms. Then to be told that the one sister could not find the other because she changes her name online to protect her identity. Now…

Growing trend?

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#185

Post by hi41 »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #148
hi41 wrote: post #112

>Beşikçi said it was due to a single line of code, which created a window "one pixel high, one pixel wide" — essentially invisible to the human eye — to Bylock.net. Kindly, could someone please explain what kind of hacking attack this is and how it works? Did this window create a browser cookie for Bylock?

It's not a "hacking attack", it's an element on a website: or This code, if it was a part of a page you browse, would cause your browser to load the linked site, almost exactly like clicking on this link: http://bylock.net . This iframe was present in various websites and apps. The nefarious component of the attack is that the Turkish government surveils all Internet traffic within its borders and thought that the we…

Thank you for your response. Why would the other apps put this line of code? Are they hand-in-hand with Bylock?

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#186

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

mbrumlow wrote: post #72

This seems to be a growing trend, mostly in journalism; Blame technology. Just recently there was a article going around about how Google's search algorithm was at fault of keeping two sisters apart. And entire multi page write up on how our lives are at the whims of computers and algorithms. Then to be told that the one sister could not find the other because she changes her name online to protect her identity. Now…

>> In the end it is people who are to blame for the problem described in this article. And it all centers around lack of understanding how these technologies work.

Well, of course it's people. Technology doesn't use itself! It's always people who use it to screw each other over.

In this case it's not even ignorance that's the first in line to take the blame. Güllenists seemingly created this app specifically to hide themselves in a crowed of people who were not their partisans. They knew very well the kind of treatment that those people could expect, but they went ahead anyway.

So, fine, it's not "the technology"- it's the people who used the technology. The technology itself is not innocent though: a tracking pixel is specifically made to be unobtrusive. Technology that allows this sort of unobtrusive surveillance is not neutral, nor is it an accident if someone "uses" it for nefarious purposes.

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#187

Post by wvenable »

thrillgore wrote: post #102
ythn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Guns don't kill people, people do" "Code doesn't cause people to be arrested, people do" True in both cases, but also true in both cases that guns/code are used as enablers of the evil deeds.

Firearms are designed to kill or disable another party. Software has no use case besides what a developer gives it. That's a pretty significant difference in design!

This a fruit-to-oranges comparison. You can't compare "Software" to "Guns" they're not that same level. You could maybe compare software to metallurgy.

You can make specific programs that have evil intent (virus, worms, ransomware) or are dangerous but have positive reasons to exist. You can also form metal into guns and knives too.

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#188

Post by jdormit »

hi41 wrote: post #185
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a "hacking attack", it's an element on a website: or This code, if it was a part of a page you browse, would cause your browser to load the linked site, almost exactly like clicking on this link: http://bylock.net . This iframe was present in various websites and apps. The nefarious component of the attack is that the Turkish government surveils all Internet traffic within its borders and thought that the we…

Thank you for your response. Why would the other apps put this line of code? Are they hand-in-hand with Bylock?

Check out soared's comment above. Basically, 1-pixel images like these are used by companies to track when someone views their content. It's a very common practice - most of your emails probably contain tracking pixels so that whoever sent them can tell if you viewed the email. If they see a request on their server for the URL they put in the tracking pixel, they know you've opened the email.

In Bylock's case, it was most likely a tracking pixel embedded in advertisements for Bylock that the other apps were displaying. The pixel helped Bylock track how many people were viewing their ads.

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#189

Post by torstenvl »

com_kieffer wrote: post #80
torstenvl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few such countries exist, and most people in them aren't native English-speakers.

I'm pretty sure that most people in the US speak English. See "signature strikes": https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/01/obama-contin... Quoting from the article: > So-called “signature strikes”, targeting people whose behavior is assessed to be similar enough to those of terrorists to mark them for death, will continue, according to senior US officials. > Human-rights groups have long denounced the practic…

The cited source does not support the stated proposition. It merely contains an unsourced, parenthetical, editorial comment to that effect.

The alleged practice is not something the United States does.

Re: Thousands of Turks accused of using Bylock app despite never having used it

#190

Post by hi41 »

jdormit wrote: post #188
hi41 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your response. Why would the other apps put this line of code? Are they hand-in-hand with Bylock?

Check out soared's comment above. Basically, 1-pixel images like these are used by companies to track when someone views their content. It's a very common practice - most of your emails probably contain tracking pixels so that whoever sent them can tell if you viewed the email. If they see a request on their server for the URL they put in the tracking pixel, they know you've opened the email. In Bylock's case, it was…

Thank you, soared and jdormit!
Post reply on HN