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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

#151

Post by logicallee »

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.

>They totally still call you paranoid.

People really don't. You can search comments here or elsewhere, you really won't find anyone calling anyone else paranoid for suggesting the government is watching everyone, intercepting communications, listening in on conversations, whatever. Find me a single example of anyone doing so in the past 2 years without an immediate reply from someone else (i.e. somene other than the OP) saying "No. Sorry. Since snowden you don't get to call anyone paranoid for thinking the government is listening."

In fact, quite the opposite I bet if you asked anyone with an Amazon Echo, "Do you think the government can listen to private conversations using an Amazon Echo" my guess is most people would say, "I don't know. If they really needed to, I guess?"

Nobody would say, "Of course not. Don't be paranoid."

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

#152

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]

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

#153

Post by jankiehodgpodge »

stonepresto wrote: post #41

Root everything. FOSS all the things. Tear everything apart. There will always be a BBEG, no matter what part of the world you are in or what sort of government you live under. You are the only one who acts in your best interest.

For most people, rooting makes them less secure not more. It all depends on who you're securing against.

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

#154

Post by slg »

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.

It is a relatively common belief among non-technical people in my friend group that Facebook listens to everything you say within earshot of your phone and later displays ads to you based on what it hears. That belief still isn't enough to get those people to stop using Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It isn't that people don't think they are being spied on. It is that people don't really care that they are being spied on.

Snowden didn't fail to change things because people didn't believe him. He failed to change things because he didn't articulate a compelling enough reason for people to be fearful of what he revealed.

If people reading this want to see this changed, we need to do a better job of showing the real world consequences of this lost privacy. Talking about theoretical concepts like lost freedom and privacy isn't enough. You need tangible examples of how people's lives are made worse by this spying.

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

#156

Post by sonotathrowaway »

dylan604 wrote: post #23
jdndbfbf wrote: post #13

The director of the NSA lied while under oath to congress, and nothing happened. As far as I'm concerned, what 3 letter agencies say publically is irrelevant.

To be fair, Clapper did come back for a follow up, and basically said, "oops, looks like I was wrong." That's it. Congress didn't push back, and thanked him for his service. So looks like Congress is complicit as well.

Clapper was forced to issue a retraction after Snowden leaked material showing he perjured himself. He defended his then answer as the “least untruthful answer” he could give, maybe that’s a term of art in intelligence when you intentionally suborn oversight.

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

#157

Post by darkerside »

slg wrote: post #154
dancemethis wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is a relatively common belief among non-technical people in my friend group that Facebook listens to everything you say within earshot of your phone and later displays ads to you based on what it hears. That belief still isn't enough to get those people to stop using Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It isn't that people don't think they are being spied on. It is that people don't really care that they are being…

People now view going on the Internet as akin to going outside. Yes, other people can see you, and yes, you have limited expectations of privacy. No, it's not problematic that you have police keeping an eye on things. If you have a problem with that, and you never go outside without your "disguise" aka VPN, you are operating outside of social norms (and it's probably not helping anyway).

This is not a valid judgement on any way. I just think some people may not realize the way others may perceive and think about this privacy dilemma.

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

#158

Post by wolco2 »

Thinkx220 wrote: post #110
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.

It's comments like this that convince me most programmers are arogant douchebags. Just because someone has a weird idea about an event that had almost no direct affect on the general population doesn't mean we should remove those peoples ability to have a choice in matters which will effect them. Knowing more than someone else does not make you morally superior or give you more of a right to have a say in your own fa…

If that were the case we would give babies, kids and teenagers the right to vote. Kids would always vote in a superhero or ice cream. And chocolate would win in a landslide.

We only allow those of a certain age to vote because they are able to understand and weigh the issues fairly.

We only allow those of a certain age to be juriors for that reason.

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

#159

Post by a_t48 »

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #144
rapind wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Frankly that's a horrifying prospect - if I get seriously injured and have to go on permanent disability, I'd rather not be (further?) disenfranchised.

This is the same as saying "I don't believe disabled/poor people should be able to vote"

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

#160

Post by rmrfstar »

LinuxBender wrote: post #114
lern_too_spel wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no whistle to blow. It is fairly well known that all international calls into or out of each country are monitored by bots using speech recognition by the related agency for each repsective country. This has been the case for a very long time. Before bots, there were listening stations with thousands of people monitoring calls. There would be nothing for Snowden to leak in that regard. The only place this ha…

Confirmed in this gem:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200618030047/https://www.balti...

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