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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

#171

Post by octoberfranklin »

frickinLasers wrote: post #97
bayindirh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA. Oh boy. That's some serious delusion in 2020. Wireless cards and higher end network interface cards are independent computers. Your processor has another processor (Intel ME and others) in it. Baseband Management Controllers are also independent computers on their own right. With closed firmware and wireless capabilities, you can never know w…

> - Your Intel system runs a special version of Minix on its Management Engine. A version of Minix customized for Intel by its original developer. I hear a lot about Intel's ME, but not much about AMD's PSP. I assume it's just as bad. At least we know how to hobble the ME.

> At least we know how to hobble the ME.

No, we just think we know how to hobble the ME.

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

#172

Post by octoberfranklin »

fsflover wrote: post #61
bayindirh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA. Oh boy. That's some serious delusion in 2020. Wireless cards and higher end network interface cards are independent computers. Your processor has another processor (Intel ME and others) in it. Baseband Management Controllers are also independent computers on their own right. With closed firmware and wireless capabilities, you can never know w…

> - Your Intel system runs a special version of Minix on its Management Engine. A version of Minix customized for Intel by its original developer Not on all systems. It's neutralized and disabled on my Librem 15: https://puri.sm/learn/intel-me/ .

Please stop posting this disinformation.

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

#173

Post by kortilla »

munk-a wrote: post #121
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.

Sorry but no - universal suffrage has been proven historically to be far less flawed than any of the other suffrage limits we've ever had - giving everyone, including the idiots and the deplorables, a voice lets us see what our society is actually made of and might just make[1] education a bigger priority in the US budget. 1. Future tense because right now the US doesn't have 1 person 1 vote equivalence for most elec…

> a voice lets us see what our society is actually made of and might just make[1] education a bigger priority in the US budget.

How does that work once the idiots are in charge of the budget?

> 1. Future tense because right now the US doesn't have 1 person 1 vote equivalence for most elections.

Well it does. The confusion is about what you’re voting for.

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

#174

Post by munk-a »

kortilla wrote: post #173
munk-a wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but no - universal suffrage has been proven historically to be far less flawed than any of the other suffrage limits we've ever had - giving everyone, including the idiots and the deplorables, a voice lets us see what our society is actually made of and might just make[1] education a bigger priority in the US budget. 1. Future tense because right now the US doesn't have 1 person 1 vote equivalence for most elec…

> a voice lets us see what our society is actually made of and might just make[1] education a bigger priority in the US budget. How does that work once the idiots are in charge of the budget? > 1. Future tense because right now the US doesn't have 1 person 1 vote equivalence for most elections. Well it does. The confusion is about what you’re voting for.

> How does that work once the idiots are in charge of the budget?

Society collapses and we become a failed state - but states fail all the time, universal suffrage appears to minimize the number of states that need to fail.

> Well it does. The confusion is about what you’re voting for.

When it comes to voting for president, my vote as a Vermonter is objectively worth 2.63 times as much as my friend from Washington - additionally the FPTP voting approach and winner take-all electoral college causes a lot of other oddities that make my VT vote essentially worthless when compared with a resident of PA.

There are a few ways we break 1 person 1 vote equivalence and while we can argue whether that's a good or bad thing you can't argue against it being the case.

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

#175

Post by mpol »

inopinatus wrote: post #161
slg wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You suggest this is impossible; but I still remember that time I asked Alexa what colours the Lotus Elise was available in. For the next few weeks, whenever I went out, I'd see at least one Lotus parked on the street or at the mall or driving by.

The people at Alexa have been very busy for you :) And Lotus got a lot of sales as well.

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

#176

Post by cmdshiftf4 »

a_t48 wrote: post #159
cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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"

The disabled aside, no, I do not believe people who are withdrawing more from their society than they are depositing should be given a say in the governance of that society.

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

#178

Post by koboll »

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.

Okay, now start thinking about what happens when the political party you like least takes power and starts rewriting the poll test questions to advantage themselves. Then perhaps you'll see why this would be a catastrophically bad policy.

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

#179

Post by stonepresto »

jankiehodgpodge wrote: post #153
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.

That's certainly fair, especially if the password is then set to some variation of "password"...

Although for some devices if you can root it, you probably also know methods of securing it.

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

#180

Post by stonepresto »

fsflover wrote: post #125
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.

> You are the only one who acts in your best interest. No, you aren't. And it's impossible to do everything alone. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881988

I agree with the second part of your statement, but I think being alone in acting in your own best interest still holds. Good projects such as those are a result of many similarly aligned self-interests.

I'll admit I was being a bit dramatic, and as you have pointed out it's certainly more complex than a single sentence. I was trying to highlight that blindly trusting another human or organization can leave you vulnerable.

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