91–100 of 221 posts
Using technology to bring down tyrants. The CIA should do something useful for a change and see this app is distributed to places like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Syria, Myanmar and Iran.
I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone. Good example of software that would be better if open source.
Next step, Chinese intelligence hacks their database of verified phone numbers. Anonymity over. Having the resources of a nation state, they could probably do it easily.
I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone. Good example of software that would be better if open source.
Next step, Chinese intelligence hacks their database of verified phone numbers. Anonymity over. Having the resources of a nation state, they could probably do it easily.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
China can't cut HK off from the internet. Almost all Chinese internet traffic is routed through Hong Kong, not the other way around.
They still can cut off the consumers ISP and leave commercial untouched.
I'm thinking up scenarios of how China can do a modern Tianamen and get away with it.
I'd be happy to conclude that it isn't possible, but I'm not sure if I might be forgetting something...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think China would care about cutting themselves off from the global internet.
Maybe the Chinese government wouldn't, but the people would care, a lot. The Chinese government is perpetually afraid of revolution and rebellion.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used a simple mobile "burner" and was fine to authenticate. I bought bunch of $5 cards with cash in a small store and used this one in my dumb flip phone bought on a flea market few months ago. I am certain to a high degree that's pretty enough setup to stay under radar.
This burner phone and your "real" phone are going to be easy to correlate retroactively based on the towers they are both hitting
The Hong Kongers would never get away with what they are doing to the police in the United States.
That’s why I find it so funny the are waving US flags, along with Pepe the Frog flags. If they tried throwing Molotov cocktails at US cops, the outcome would be very different.
Pepe the Frog does not have the far-/alt-right connection here that he does in the US and elsewhere. The image is simply used as something cute and funny.
Molotovs... well, very few if any have actually been thrown at the police, rather than at barriers or police stations. There has been a ratcheting of violence, driven almost entirely by the police, and ultimately the government's complete failure to respond or act to massive peaceful protests. I am strongly in favour of the protests, and while I can't say I agree with every action of the frontliners, I cannot condemn then - I know what they're fighting for and against.
(Some) US cops are terrible. (Many) Hong Kong cops are brutal and out of control. I don't wish either force on either population.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They still can cut off the consumers ISP and leave commercial untouched.
Let's take it a step further, and imagine a complete Internet blackout in HK, both consumer and commercial, even if just for a day or a week. I'm thinking up scenarios of how China can do a modern Tianamen and get away with it. I'd be happy to conclude that it isn't possible, but I'm not sure if I might be forgetting something...
I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone. Good example of software that would be better if open source.
I had the same experience and was disappointed. But a good mesh app is inherently difficult to monetize! Combining mesh over some/several form(s) of 802.11, Signal protocol public key distribution "locally" via QR code, and Delay-Tolerant Networking (Cerf et al. 2007) would be the holy grail (and would have no reliance on SMS or phone number) and also could not be monetized. Which is a damn shame, because it's eminen…