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Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

reuters.com

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Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#141

Post by xxpor »

staplers wrote: post #113
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #45

Wyden is great. The big issue with backdoors, is that it's only a matter of time, before they become "front doors." Presented for your approval. Imagine, if you will, a software engineer; probably based in the US, that writes a backdoor into equipment used to manage a banking transaction network. This is a fairly natural place to have it, as "follow the money" is a classic forensic technique. Of course, access to thi…

is that it's only a matter of time, before they become "front doors." Look no further than Plaid banking service. They collect your banking login information. I guarantee there are blanket warrants to monitor accounts from multiple agencies.

You don't even need a warrant for that. SARs are a thing. It could potentially even be considered business records, which are just subject to a subpoena, not a warrant. The police have been able to request phone records since forever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#142

Post by FandangoRanger »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #108
LinuxBender wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but they do for sure listen to your calls. I used their software in a wireless provider. "She" was fascinating. She could understand any language, dialect, voice inflection, and so much more. No training required whatsoever. She listens to all international calls and flags phrases and key words.

They don't listen to your phone calls either. If they did, Snowden would have leaked it, and it would have been a bombshell revelation. If you have information otherwise, you should blow the whistle.

This is a bit of a term of art. "They" don't "listen" to your calls. A computer does.

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#143

Post by cmdshiftf4 »

worker767424 wrote: post #90
boomboomsubban wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I promise you nearly every American adult knows who Edward Snowden is and probably has at least a vague idea of what he was trying to communicate. I highly doubt this. In 2015, only 60% of Americans had some idea of who Snowden was, and only half of those had a positive opinion of him. I doubt this has improved over the past five years either. https://www.aclu.org/snowden-poll-results

> only 60% of Americans had some idea of who Snowden was It's things like this and people who believe the moon landing was faked that convinced me universal suffrage isn't a good thing, and we need some sort of poll test to make sure people are educated on issues before voting. I realize the US has a bad history with "literacy" tests, but it's clear that most people have no business voting.

>we need some sort of poll test to make sure people are educated on issues before voting

We've decided to go the opposite direction. The US media, celebrities, big companies, etc. have all decided that a huge low-information voter turnout > smaller but better informed voter turnout.

Indeed, apparently democracy is better when everyone participates, regardless of whether a vast amount of those people have the slightest iota of what they're participating about.

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#144

Post by cmdshiftf4 »

rapind wrote: post #138
worker767424 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> only 60% of Americans had some idea of who Snowden was It's things like this and people who believe the moon landing was faked that convinced me universal suffrage isn't a good thing, and we need some sort of poll test to make sure people are educated on issues before voting. I realize the US has a bad history with "literacy" tests, but it's clear that most people have no business voting.

I sympathize with the frustration, but the tests themselves will just be another attack vector for voter suppression (history proves this). Probably better off spending resources on improving education and political awareness. I personally think that if we aren’t going to let someone vote then we shouldn’t ask them to pay tax either.

>I personally think that if we aren’t going to let someone vote then we shouldn’t ask them to pay tax either.

Agreed.

Conversely I believe that people who haven't paid tax in a reasonable amount of years, through either not generating it in the first place, avoision or being a net beneficiary of state aid shouldn't be offered a vote.

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#147

Post by wonnage »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #131
SauciestGNU wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is. There can be a duty to resist. People get killed based solely on data collected from signals intercepts. More people and companies should take the brave stand Lavabit did, rather than be complicit in oppression and state-sponsored killings.

While I dislike the NSA as much as practically everyone else here, I’m not aware of any state-sponsored killings done by the NSA. Sure, the executive branch has ordered killings, but the branch is so large, lumping it all together makes no sense. The NSA, FCC, FTC, EPA, etc. don’t kill. Now, you should resist, yes, but most people don’t. It takes a very brave soul to resist and hope the Supreme Court will side with y…

You expect the agency responsible for putting secret backdoors everywhere to be publicizing their state-sponsored killings?

The NSA isn’t really in charge of the killing part anyway, that’s the CIA/FBI’s job

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#148

Post by outworlder »

worker767424 wrote: post #90
boomboomsubban wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I promise you nearly every American adult knows who Edward Snowden is and probably has at least a vague idea of what he was trying to communicate. I highly doubt this. In 2015, only 60% of Americans had some idea of who Snowden was, and only half of those had a positive opinion of him. I doubt this has improved over the past five years either. https://www.aclu.org/snowden-poll-results

> only 60% of Americans had some idea of who Snowden was It's things like this and people who believe the moon landing was faked that convinced me universal suffrage isn't a good thing, and we need some sort of poll test to make sure people are educated on issues before voting. I realize the US has a bad history with "literacy" tests, but it's clear that most people have no business voting.

> we need some sort of poll test to make sure people are educated on issues before voting

In principle, that's a great idea. I mean, we do have to take driving tests before we are allowed to operate dangerous machinery. We should be required to take tests before we are allowed to affect the lives of millions of people.

You can have a similar argument for parenthood. Require classes before people are allowed to bring another human into their care. Nurses have to, why not parents?

The problem with that is that these tests/lectures are defined by other humans. This shifts an enormous amount of power into the hands of a few. Next thing you know, you now have a handpicked elite eligible to vote. The US has historically used this mechanism for segregation.

Having universal suffrage (which is not yet very universal in a few countries, US included) at least allows the average to smooth out outliers. It does create perverse incentives towards not allowing the population to get TOO literate, otherwise they will be educated enough to see through all the BS.

Collectively, we need to focus on improving education for everyone and fighting disinformation. World War 3 has already begun - except it's using words, not weapons.

Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products

#149

Post by [deleted] »

dancemethis wrote: post #30
pulse7 wrote: post #5

"The tactics drew widespread attention starting in 2013, when Snowden leaked documents referencing these practices." So this is what Snowden has done: he "drew widespread attention to these tactics". Before Snowden they would call you "paranoid" if you would allow yourself to mention it. Today they can not call you paranoid anymore. And yes, it has hurt US industry reputation. Many don't trust Intel processors and Ci…

They totally still call you paranoid. Snowden unfortunately meant nothing to the general technology consumer mass. They're more than happy to defend tooth and nail their jails. See Discord or Zoom as prime current examples. It is ridiculous that he had to go through this just for people to shake their shoulders and keep on, except for the few that already were inclined to care.

[deleted]
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