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The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

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241–250 of 494 posts

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#241
If I were American, I might respond to their, "Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies" Act, with the "Mitigating Overreach Limiting Obstruction Nullifying Lamentability And Benefiting Everyone" Act.

If by EARN IT, they mean Americans should earn their freedom - which this government is using its own crimes[1] as a pretext for taking from them - that seems really just unwise.

[1] EDKH

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#242
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should watch these two hearings: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-fi... https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-fi... Feinstein shows her true colors. The first is 2013, right after Snowden leaked the presidential surveillance program. These are our elected officials who oversaw the program. They knew of its existence before the leak. The second is 2017, right after…

Wyden is great, he's my model of what I'd like to work on if I was lucky enough to be a politician.

He's almost great. He still gets taxes very wrong.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have E2EE to the service provider, but they can be free to rummage through your data if they choose to or are coerced to by a legal demand from an authority. But it eliminates the average schmoe from going through that data. Is that adequate security? Is that adequate privacy? This is what bills like EARN IT and its ilk are positing with backdoors et al. It depends on your threat model. If a warrant opens a d…

E2EE refers to fully encrypted communication between end-users of a service, hence end-to-end. If one of the ends is the service provider, the term doesn't apply.

This is the point. It's a buzzword and the reality of a lot of popular services is that the service provider can likely already provide access to your data if requested to by a government.

Ergo, if this is a consideration within your threat model, it's an inappropriate solution. However, I am highlighting that EARN IT is no more a threat than existing service providers abiding by a court order, ergo the existing solutions likely aren't fit-for-purpose for some folks, depending on threat model.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people who say they have nothing to hide, I ask them why they have locks on their doors, passwords to their email, and clothes on their body.

Well, clothes are mostly down to weather and laws on public decency, and nudists are the counterpoint that prove some demographics would prefer to be naked if the law allowed it, same with tribes like Koma. Locks are more for security than privacy, and it's important not to conflate the two. People can have nothing to hide, but also not want to be robbed. And as for email, that's again a matter of security because th…

Email passwords are not for preventing impersonation. For one, POP3 passwords are separate from SMTP. Second, nothing in SMTP prevents impersonation… large mail handlers like GMail don’t allow it anymore, but you can put whatever you want in the “From” field. Things like SPF, DMARC and DKIM are there to prevent impersonation at the domain level for mail servers that want to protect their users.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#245
post #7

A reminder that "you have nothing to hide" argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power: Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused [1]: "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... [2]: https://reason.com/2022/07/26/police-can-access-your-ring-ca... [3]: https://reason.com/2021/04/26/warrantless-border-s…

Many seem to not realize that privacy is not about having something to hide (I guess that would be secrecy), but about the right to keep things to yourself. Those are two different concepts.

Exactly! The best way someone put it - right to choose what to share and who to share it with.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#246
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real patriots, in my experience: 1. Don't talk long and loud about being patriots (i.e. don't self-identify) 2. Tend to work for the government. Career govvies or military. They show their patriotism through action. > There's a huge subset (dare I say majority) of those "patriots" you deride who don't like this stuff, don't think their goings on are any of the government's business. I know the type well, as that desc…

> Tend to work for the government. Career govvies or military. They show their patriotism through action. I just want to chime in here and say that working for the government isn't the only way to be a patriot (i.e. serve the country). Upholding American values is something anyone can do in any part of society.

That's fair enough. What's fresh in my memory is a few weeks back, I was at Quantico for the graduation of a family member from the FBI academy, where the convocation speech was delivered by Christopher Wray. I cannot imagine a more patriotic group of people - genuinely people who dedicate their whole lives to the betterment of the nation. It was really inspiring.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#247
post #7

A reminder that "you have nothing to hide" argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power: Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused [1]: "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... [2]: https://reason.com/2022/07/26/police-can-access-your-ring-ca... [3]: https://reason.com/2021/04/26/warrantless-border-s…

Even framing it as "nothing to hide" implies that hiding is the exception. Shouldn't it be the default?

Yes, even those who overshare on social media still are operating (and benefitting) from privacy as a default.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I said about WikiLeaks even at the time. Sprinkle in some untruths with truths and you've got something convincing.

You don't even need to say anything that isn't true. Just being selective about which true secrets you reveal can be a very powerful tool to control the narrative.

Absolutely.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#249
post #44

I find myself consistently disappointed when reading blog posts like this. I generally agree with the principles that the EFF advocates for, but it's hard to see this post as anything other than rage-bait. I can't trust it to be an accurate source of information on what this bill actually does. For example, I've repeatedly seen claims that this bill would effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption, but the bill explici…

Client side scanning came out of the discussion around this bill the last time it was proposed. That it isn’t in this bill doesn’t mean it isn’t in politicians’ heads, and if this gets passed there is then significant precedent for extending it, as a small extension doesn’t seem as big as a full-scale government invasion of citizens’ privacy (i.e. this bill).

I don't believe the transition from "set up a commission to recommend best practices" to "mandate regular scans of everyone's phones and report the results to law enforcement" would be viewed as a small extension.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#250
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

So 1984 style listening devices and cameras in every home is the obvious solution right? Houses are where a lot of abuse happens. Scanning doesn’t even stop abuse from happening, just the possession and distribution of it.

Thank you for illustrating my point about the poisoned well. Say "Don't participate in crimes" and it gets morphed into 1984.
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