When privacy is criminalised only criminals will have privacy
UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
131–140 of 320 posts
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#132Seems like they keep dancing up to this in democratic countries and then back off. Presumably there is someone who understands the universe somewhere along the way who gives them a compelling warning.
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#133Seems like they keep dancing up to this in democratic countries and then back off. Presumably there is someone who understands the universe somewhere along the way who gives them a compelling warning.
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Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not completely untrue, there was a whole hoo-hah over getting Boris Johnsons WhatsApp messages. They use it to get around the requirement that official communications be logged and available for later scrutiny, much like a bank has to retain communications in case of an audit.
Assuming that is true, it's amusing that the politicians are trying to strip communications privacy from the masses while desiring it themselves.
You also need to understand the context that in the UK, and most of the west other than the US, WhatsApp is just the default communication channel for messaging. If you text someone, it's just assumed it's via WhatsApp.
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Eco terrorism” is on the rise. As we progress with climate change and climate disaster, it’s clear that eco terrorism is going to be increasing. This has been especially highlighted in UK. I put it in quotes because honestly it’s just fighting for survival at this point, but the ones in charge have decided to add the word terror to make it scarier.
And I question how much terror stopping traffic generates, generally more just irritation.
pretty sure “eco terrorism” includes things like sabotaging pipelines and such too.
though to your point, that form’s more of an economic weapon than it is terror.
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#136I wonder where does this end? I do feel like nearly once a year some country in western world tries to ban encryption. Can we just make it a right to encrypt communications and be done with this endless debate?
legislate all you want but enshrining it as a right won’t magically fix that your government is antagonistic to your privacy. the US has its fourth amendment for 200+ years but that’s never stopped it from wiretapping its own citizens despite that being a pretty unambiguous violation of the text.
if you want to “be done with the endless debate” then perhaps use (and contribute to) protocols/infrastructure which aren’t so easily governed.
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#137Url changed from https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/09/06/uk-encryption-w..., which points to this.
Submitters: "Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#138> The UK government has conceded it will not use controversial powers in the online safety bill to scan messaging apps for harmful content until it is “technically feasible” to do so (...) That would be waiting for a quantum computer and quietly hoping that a) nobody develops a strong enough post-quantum scheme and b) there is still civilization after RSA and ECC are broken? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Quantum computing doesn’t matter. Nothing in the universe can break a one time pad.
This isn't the first time I've seen someone on HN act like one-time pads are the solution to all of the problems of cryptography.
It's like people read that OTPs are the only encryption method that has been proven to be completely unbreakable (when used correctly) and stop reading there, and then completely miss all the things OTPs don't solve (ie, guaranteeing authenticity), not to mention their massive glaring limitation: How do you transfer the encryption key?
Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#139Re: UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
#140It's a little unclear, but my reading of this is that the power to do it will still be in the law, requiring at most secondary legislation to put into effect (perhaps not even that) if they think they ever have enough leverage over messaging providers, or are willing to spend the political capital. Not a great place to be in really, but better than it actually being deployed.
The wording has not been changed at all, so it's still being deployed. They just seem to have made a clumsy fudge statement at a meeting about it.