Live data from Hacker News

Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

asia.nikkei.com

111–120 of 281 posts

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#111

1. How is this really different to government-mandated microphones and cameras in your house, school, workplace, etc? 2. What’s the endgame here? Open-source encrypted messaging software is widely available. The cat is out of the bag. Every country on Earth could outlaw the technology and it would still be trivially easy for criminals to use it. Do the people behind these proposals not see that?

> Every country on Earth could outlaw the technology and it would still be trivially easy for criminals to use it

Trivially easy but probably in practice too much of a bother. I imagine most traffic isn't between well trained members of international terrorist or crime organisations planning major heists, but people who are friends, family members and acquaintances.

They're already using WhatsApp to talk with other friends about every day things so start planning and revealing criminal behaviour accidentally without taking the trouble to move to another platform.

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#113
post #110
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is this really different to government-mandated microphones and cameras in your house, school, workplace, etc? The difference is that the infrastructure is in place and can be turned on at will so it feels within the reach of the people who think they deserved to do that. They think that deserve it because they believe that the job they do is the most important thing in the world and they can suddenly gain acce…

I'm not really sure what your point is here. And the reason to be pro-nuclear is the vast quantities of environmentally friendly energy. The argument isn't that Fukushima or Chernobyl won't happen again (although they probably won't) - the argument is that after including Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear power is still , according to the evidence, safer and more environmentally friendly than solar or wind. The damage…

This reply is spot on top to bottom.

"Who knows what sort of damage it will cause in the Five Eyes countries next time a moral hysteria sweeps through the public..."

That moral hysteria is NOW and every day since mid-march.

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#114
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please correct me If you believe otherwise. But no indirect deaths please, the nuclear folks don't count these too. No inconveniences, life altering, career ending troubles, those don't appear on the only "few died due to nuclear accidents" statistics too. To be clear, I am not anti-nuclear however I don't buy the "Chernobyl and Fukushima are note big deal" message that the low death toll numbers convey.

The death toll from the KGB and associated state violence is likely in the millions, not a few dozen people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_repression_in_the_So...

That link doesn't mention the KGB, the deaths and executions it refers to (largely of Communist Party and Red Army personnel) occurred before the KGB even existed, and nothing like what is described happened during the KGB era (1954-1991).

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#115
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I rent my apartment, the government can compel a landlord to place recording devices in the residence without serving me a warrant?

Depends under which jurisdiction. The Swedish ambassador to North Korea complained to his secretary that the driveway outside was still full of snow. He was about to order some of his own men out, but minutes later a bunch of North Korean labourers appeared and cleared all the snow away in front of his embassy, including the driveway. When he asked the secretary, she told him that she hadn't called anyone. Then they…

Do you have a source for this? A quick Google search shows your comment as the top result.

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#116

1. How is this really different to government-mandated microphones and cameras in your house, school, workplace, etc? 2. What’s the endgame here? Open-source encrypted messaging software is widely available. The cat is out of the bag. Every country on Earth could outlaw the technology and it would still be trivially easy for criminals to use it. Do the people behind these proposals not see that?

> 1. How is this really different to government-mandated microphones and cameras in your house, school, workplace, etc?

Could you explain this question to someone who doesn't have a Facebook account?

As far as I understand, US phone companies are required to provide law enforcement with the ability to tap phone calls going through their exchanges, yet it doesn't seem that is on the same level as a government mandated microphone. Does Facebook have constant access to a facebook user's ("provider's" maybe, given their business model) mic and camera?

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#117

Every single social network is backdoored by multiple governments.

My thoughts exactly. I always suspect that these articles are aimed at convincing the naive that these networks are currently secure and immune from govt level snooping.

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#118
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to get into a death toll deal discussion but people killed by KGB and Stasi is just as low. You cant be serious.

Please correct me If you believe otherwise. But no indirect deaths please, the nuclear folks don't count these too. No inconveniences, life altering, career ending troubles, those don't appear on the only "few died due to nuclear accidents" statistics too. To be clear, I am not anti-nuclear however I don't buy the "Chernobyl and Fukushima are note big deal" message that the low death toll numbers convey.

> I don't buy the "Chernobyl and Fukushima are note big deal" message that the low death toll numbers convey.

Why not? What evidence is there to the contrary? These death tolls vary by a lot, but even the high end is quite low compared to fossil fuels.

The fear people have of radiation seems to be much greater than reality would justify. This causes very serious problems, like evacuating hundreds of thousands of people unnecessarily after an accident, destroying their lives due to mostly paranoia[1], as well as slowing down considerably our efforts to lower CO2 emissions (like Germany shutting down all its nuclear facilities even if that causes thousands of deaths due to increased pollution[2]).

[1] https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Japan-nuclear-sh... [2] https://grist.org/energy/the-cost-of-germany-going-off-nucle...

Re: Five Eyes and Japan call for Facebook backdoor to monitor crime

#119

As much as I hate it, I think this battle is already lost. Be it a social media company like Facebook or a computing devices company like Apple. They are going to kowtow to the wishes of the state to earn their profits. Also, I don't think it is just the state. There is no way to know if they are in majority but I am sure many people also buy into this argument. If you argue for encryption and antonymity, I am sure s…

Please stop spreading learned helplessness and donate to Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://eff.org.
Post reply on HN