Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#371

Post by therealdrag0 » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:31 AM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #360

therealdrag0 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such an off beat example, I don’t really understand what you’re getting at. We can still have robust TLS without having e2e encryption that prevents the media servers for scanning for illegal material.

> Such an off beat example Is that sarcasm? Logging into sites w/ usernames/passwords is literally a thing people do many times a day. That's the opposite of off-beat. >We can still have robust TLS without having e2e encryption that prevents the media servers for scanning for illegal material. End to end encryption is primarily about transport encryption. Scanning for content on media servers strongly suggests you're…

So this is where the miscommunication is. I didn’t know people were attacking TLS, that seems absurd to me. When I hear e2e, I interpret it as no one except the communicating parties can see the data. Facebook messenger DOES use TLS but it does not have e2e encryption.

Glancing at the Wikipedia page, your definition is the original one but in the last 6 years it’s evolved to the meaning I was using.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#372

Post by WhompingWindows » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:35 AM UTC

lordofgibbons wrote: post #95

>And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger]. WOW. Why would someone in the tech industry like Gates be anti-encryption for the public? The only argument I can think of against it is "You have nothing to worry about if you ha…

Would you consider it an acceptable edge case to privacy/decryption to allow child sexual abuse prosecutors to unlock a suspect's phone which was suspected to contain GB of evidence of abuse?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#373

Post by philliphaydon » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:40 AM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #332

api wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does encryption even have to do with COVID? All the disinformation I see is cleartext on social media.

Gates is scared people are passing bad information through encrypted platforms such as whatsapp. Next, he will require 24/7 monitoring of every private citizen to make sure we don’t call him mean names.

I'm not convinced e2e encryption exists in WhatsApp. Every time I have conversations about products in whats app I get those products as adverts in Facebook.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#374

Post by khawkins » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:41 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #350

solarhoma wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that this statement from Bill is the most interesting. This statement shows Bill Gates, someone who has influence on legislatures, making a statement against encryption.

Everyone has a range of opinions and some of them will be factually/morally/logically/practically objectionable. The fact that Gates has an opinion that you, I or indeed everyone disagrees with is not interesting. What about "It’s insane how confused the trials here in the US have been."? That opinion is very important and has implications for how everyone here should act. The last 6 months have been expensively purc…

It does speak to why he's treated with so much distrust, as is discussed by other threads. Unlike the average person, Gates is someone who can actually make things happen with his incredible wealth. It suggests a form of paternalistic authoritarian attitude towards social issues that undeniably colors his attitude towards this pandemic.

You can also read in his tone that he feels personally slighted by not being given a seat at the table in the US COVID response. People point to South Korea's success and call the US a failure, not realizing that if you implemented their measures in the US: things like forced contact tracing, forced registration, and locking up the infected in isolated sites, you'd have a civil insurrection on your hands.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#375

Post by riquito » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:43 AM UTC

yeswecatan wrote: post #326

dr_ wrote: post #5

He points out that a standard nasal swab test is as accurate as a nasopharyngeal (deep) swab. This is readily available from labcorp, can be done at home, and the results are reasonably quick, within 48 hrs. It’s covered by insurance and includes overnight fedex shipping.

In this article? I didn't see that mentioned. Do _all_ insurances cover this?

It's in page 2 of the article

> There’s this thing where the health worker jams the deep turbinate, in the back of your nose, which actually hurts and makes you sneeze on the healthy worker. We showed that the quality of the results can be equivalent if you just put a self-test in the tip of your nose with a cotton swab.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#376

Post by dmode » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:44 AM UTC

dharma1 wrote: post #258

I would love to see someone let Bill talk about covid, the implications of economic damage and increased debt over the next 1-2 years, the inequality which covid magnifies, and future methods of prevention - for an hour or two, with a good host. This interview is good but barely scratches the surface. edit: I've just found a recent interview - while still high level, it's a bit more detailed. However, the comments se…

Gates is fighting climate change, funding vaccine movements, and said some mean things about the White House. What did you expect ?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#377

Post by lern_too_spel » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:45 AM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #297

lern_too_spel wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gates attacked encryption. Where did he do that? Slack and Microsoft Teams also use encryption, and he wasn't opposed to the method they use it.

>Where did he [attack encryption]? Right here. "And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger]." Unless you're alleging the stuff in the brackets isn't attributable to Gates and doesn't reflect his position on encryption.

He is saying encryption as used in WhatsApp. What's in the brackets reflects his position if you read it in the proper context, which is not what you are alleging it to be. He is fine with the encryption in Slack and Teams.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#378

Post by bostonvaulter2 » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

3131s wrote: post #368

mdoms wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

It doesn't matter how long. The "go-to" source should have integrity, along with no financial stake in the issues at hand.

I would argue that "no financial stake" is not a good metric because basically all experts have a financial stake in their area of expertise.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#379

Post by evan_ » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:48 AM UTC

jkestner wrote: post #351

kabacha wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't he very vocal about the fact that rich should be taxed heavily?

Vocal, as in he did the usual billionaire dissembling about how Warren's wealth tax would take 90% of his fortune and kill innovation. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elizabeth-warren-would-love-to-...

and of course 10% of his fortune is still more than all the money made in the lifetime of every person Who will read this combined

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#380

Post by dwaltrip » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 3:49 AM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #290

gexla wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot to unpack in that quote and much of it is up to our interpretation. I feel that the following statements could both be true. 1. Social media platforms should be able to monitor what content users are sharing on these platforms. Therefore these platforms maybe shouldn't have end-to-end encryption. 2. People need to have access to encryption for their own usage outside of social media platforms. Where thi…

>>> Social media platforms should be able to monitor what content users are sharing on these platforms. Then you’re not a platform, you are a publisher and should be held accountable for what you choose to publish. A platform is literally that: a platform for use by users as they see intended. I’m not talking about trolls, spammers, hackers and those who post illegal content. When platforms move down to editorialize…

Section 230 allows internet companies to control which content is shown on their platforms and also gives them liability protection against being held accountable for content created by users.

Decent article about section 230: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/business/section-230-inte...