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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

#181
post #154

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…

> 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.

Well, my experience is that people care but don't have an idea on how they could change that. They feel powerless, have no idea what to do, and they are apathic. They accept their shackles like they deserve it. They know they are abused but since they are human, they use coping mechanisms to continue using apps they believe are actually not so nice for them.

Of course they have thoughts like "actually, my picture is not private anymore", but for their sanity of mind they carry on because of network effects/ease of use/etc. They choose to push those thoughts off, as they are outside of their control. To us, it might sound like they just don't care. That's wrong!

At least, that is what I conclude after talking with non-techies about this stuff.

I am sure you can sell privacy as a big plus, but you need to deal with above aspects as well.

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

#182

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.

That's pretty much part of their job.

Their mindset: we own the United States of America, and the rest of you are just sheep. We are doing shepherd's job and you don't need to understand it. We are doing wolf's job because there are wolves at the gate so we better fight back with bigger teeth. We the people do not include your ordinary sheep, and only the privileged ones are "people".

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

#183
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 -…

> 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.

Curious claim. Has there been any research that shows states are less likely to fail with universal suffrage?

> 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

See, that’s the confusion. You’re not voting for president directly. You’re voting for who you want your electoral college to vote for. In most states if you’re on the losing side of the vote in your state, your presidential vote literally means nothing.

Your individual vote in Vermont is not “worth more” than your friend’s vote in Washington because your both just voting in state level decisions about who the college should vote for.

The legitimate claim is about the number of delegates and (arguably much more important) the number of house representatives each state is getting.

Reiterated, there isn’t a lack of 1 person 1 vote equivalence in any elections I know of in the US (e.g. landowners don’t get extra votes). There are just elections people think are direct democracy when they are far from it.

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

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Rooting a device does not enable setting a password for it. You can host sshd without root, or host sshd but disable root login. Rooting and setting a password, or opening remote command channels for that matter, are separate things. Root allows you to shoot yourself in the foot more than you could otherwise, but you do need to pull the trigger.

The default root methods just enable apps to request root, after which the user gets a prompt. It's like the camera, microphone, or any other special permission.

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

#185
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…

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…

I hear this "the internet is like outside, don't expect privacy" argument a lot from americans, who i think are taught some 18th century definition of privacy by their media, as in "in your private rooms" and not a 21st century definition as in "about your private data". If you go to the city there are no agents of third party marketing agencies keeping notes of your movement and what items you look at in the stores to profile you.

Imagine going to the city and there is this trenchcoat and hat wearing private agent following you all day and you go into a store and see him handing the salesman a note and pointing at you, and then the sales guy comes over to you and says "good day - do you want to buy red things? and you are like "actually i am looking ..." and the agent is now uncomfortably leaning into you conversation, "... for green things". Sales says "sure this way, please" and the agent is writing "green!" in his notebook, circling it three times. That is what the internet is like today. And you look around and everyone has these agents following them, keeping notes. You ask someone about it they say "well most people don't even notice them" or "that is how things are" or "people shouldn't expect not to be spied on by private corporations". So you hurry home while from every side street more agents come and try to follow you until you have this horde on your track and you hasten into your door with a crowd outside holding up signs like "buy red things!" and "green thing is green!" - but you are now at home so you relax and walk through your hallway to your room and say "computer: play some licensed music" and guitar music starts playing and -shocker- there are agents in your living room, one sitting on your couch playing the guitar, one is standing in front of your bookshelf taking notes of its content and another one is looking through your fridge, then stares directly at you and holds a sign up: "buy food"

The internet is nothing like outside.

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

#186
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

you say 'disabled aside' but what about the myriad of other reasons? Mental health, unemployment, pregnancy that year, international travel but still a citizen, w/e. As soon as you start pointing to reasons that a government can/ can't take away your power to vote you are screwed as a populace. Not that i have much faith in the voting system anyways cause' who knows how they count the votes anyways. It seems the incredibly old voting machines that they have could easily be hacked by a nation-state level effort.

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

#188
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 -…

> 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.

The only society's that i can think of that lasted a long time were society's that didn't have universal suffrage. The idea of a republic is pretty stupid to be honest. What you end up with is a bunch of people with completely different agendas to ensure that every issue gets hotly debated and when a decision is 'made', barely enforced or executed on. Additionally, it seems to give rise to massive paternalism and loss of freedom which is suppose to be the opposite of what it was meant to do.

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

#189

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.

three letter agencies are to the US that the pretorian guard was to Rome after the fall of the republic. They seem to have their own level of authority above and beyond that of congress or even the emperors themselves. However in the US this authority not gained through threat of violence but through information. They have all the scandals, controversial issues about EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT. Who wants to pick that battle?

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its more nuanced than that. Didn't read the book completely but read a long report. What I remember: - They got exact hardware details and topology of the centrifuges somehow. - They've stolen Realtek's driver signing keys. - The virus looks like a simple worm which can infect other USB devices and doesn't unpack beyond a certain point if it can't find the SCADA equipment and the correct device ID & topology (It's li…

Book?

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon - by Kim Zetter [0]

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18465875-countdown-to-ze...

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