Live data from Hacker News

Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

reuters.com

61–70 of 171 posts

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#61

Hanlon's razor applies here. If there was truly something nefarious going on, why would FedEx update the tracking status to say that the packages were re-routed? Why not just say they were held up in the sending or receiving country?

Potential reason - they do not have a system that can split public/secret stops. They need tracking to be available for internal purposes (actual delivery) but never built the filtering features. (Or there is, but needs boxes to be checked explicitly and the box wasn't checked. Is there anyone from FedEx to throwaway comment? :-) )

We are talking about the federal government - do you think suits from the three-letter agencies will accept that reasoning?

No. If they want quiet intercepts, that's what they get... even if it means "slow down conveyor belts and post agents to manually read every incoming package label before it hits the scanner".

This was either unrelated or an intentionally loud message.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#62
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you mean Memphis? Atlanta would love to take some or all that traffic away from Memphis since the Atlanta airport is woefully under utilized after midnight.

Maybe? I just remember it was somewhere on the other side of the country where my package from SF to LA had no business being.

The Memphis package exchange is something to behold. It's the hub in a massive hub and spoke model.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#63

Not related to this package delivery drama, but the way we are observing the live demolition of the world largest networking equipment maker and second largest smartphone maker (by number) in the name of trade war will never bring back the confidence in those who are flexing muscle. The illusion of the rule of law, free world, globalization and the reality of control is simply frightening, and worrisome.

Blacklisting Huawei is for national security reasons not because of the trade war. Because of the trade war the US has stopped turning a blind eye to misdeeds from China and state backed Chinese companies.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#64

Not related to this package delivery drama, but the way we are observing the live demolition of the world largest networking equipment maker and second largest smartphone maker (by number) in the name of trade war will never bring back the confidence in those who are flexing muscle. The illusion of the rule of law, free world, globalization and the reality of control is simply frightening, and worrisome.

What they're doing to Huawei will have nefarious consequences to the US. Who can ever trust a country that can use this kind of tactics to destroy a comercial competitor?

China's tactics aren't really any better (allow blatant IP theft).

I suppose the only real difference was that this wasn't well-known in advance. It's like the Joker's statement about people losing their shit when something happens unannounced but being orderly when much worse is announced in advance.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#65
post #47
post #17

Anyone who has shipped with FedEx knows how somehow everything you send goes through Atlanta. I'll bet this was just one of those "logistical efficiency" gone wrong kind of things. Or US intelligence requested the documents be diverted. Either is about equally likely I'd say.

If US intelligence wanted it, it would simply get put on hold at some foreign facility while agents go through it there (or use that transparent paper spray). Nothing different would be noticed.

What is this transparent paper spray?

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potential reason - they do not have a system that can split public/secret stops. They need tracking to be available for internal purposes (actual delivery) but never built the filtering features. (Or there is, but needs boxes to be checked explicitly and the box wasn't checked. Is there anyone from FedEx to throwaway comment? :-) )

We are talking about the federal government - do you think suits from the three-letter agencies will accept that reasoning? No. If they want quiet intercepts, that's what they get... even if it means "slow down conveyor belts and post agents to manually read every incoming package label before it hits the scanner". This was either unrelated or an intentionally loud message.

Three letter agencies are not gods, they make mistakes, they underestimate complexity of some issues and etc. After all they are just people with too much power.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#67

Not related to this package delivery drama, but the way we are observing the live demolition of the world largest networking equipment maker and second largest smartphone maker (by number) in the name of trade war will never bring back the confidence in those who are flexing muscle. The illusion of the rule of law, free world, globalization and the reality of control is simply frightening, and worrisome.

What they're doing to Huawei will have nefarious consequences to the US. Who can ever trust a country that can use this kind of tactics to destroy a comercial competitor?

[deleted]

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potential reason - they do not have a system that can split public/secret stops. They need tracking to be available for internal purposes (actual delivery) but never built the filtering features. (Or there is, but needs boxes to be checked explicitly and the box wasn't checked. Is there anyone from FedEx to throwaway comment? :-) )

We are talking about the federal government - do you think suits from the three-letter agencies will accept that reasoning? No. If they want quiet intercepts, that's what they get... even if it means "slow down conveyor belts and post agents to manually read every incoming package label before it hits the scanner". This was either unrelated or an intentionally loud message.

We're of course still speculating, by given the number of low-level employees that would need to be involved, it would be hard to keep it silent for long.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they're doing to Huawei will have nefarious consequences to the US. Who can ever trust a country that can use this kind of tactics to destroy a comercial competitor?

China's tactics aren't really any better (allow blatant IP theft). I suppose the only real difference was that this wasn't well-known in advance. It's like the Joker's statement about people losing their shit when something happens unannounced but being orderly when much worse is announced in advance.

China is priced in. US was not. US forgets how much of its prosperity is due to economic freedom/liberty. US is quickly becoming just another country.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#70

Hanlon's razor applies here. If there was truly something nefarious going on, why would FedEx update the tracking status to say that the packages were re-routed? Why not just say they were held up in the sending or receiving country?

you ever dealt with a big corporate?

that's like asking "why are there software bugs when programmers know how to code!"

of course, there's the other side of that coin, in that of you've got a big enough company and enough of a complex package network, the probability that you'll find packages routed erroneously or in bizarre directions approaches 1.

Given that we do not know the details of the packages, either their contents or supposed reason for rerouting, but we do know that Huawei has made a media story of this (a couple of packages rerouting is nothing to get in the paper about, and they could have kept quiet if they were genuinely concerned), about the only thing we can really take away from this is that is likely part of the public relations/propaganda jostling currently going on between US/China corporates.

Post reply on HN