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Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

blog.tripu.info

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Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#221

Post by mbork_pl »

tripu wrote: post #219
mbork_pl wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How on Earth is it relevant that I'm a Spaniard? He probably can't trust you because _he's known too many Spaniards_. (Sorry for being off-topic, but I really could resist making that reference to the greatest movie of all time;-).) More on topic: > Hungary and Poland, are still immature barely-liberal regimes with more than a whiff of political repression I don't know what reports you've read, but I don't think we…

> I don't know what reports you've read I used these reports, which I already knew before writing this post: • Both Poland and Hungary are classified as “flawed democracies” by The Economist . Only 24 countries are considered to be “full democracies” (and this is irrelevant, but Spain happens to be among them). https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/DI-final-version... • On a scale of 0–100 on political freedom,…

Thanks. Just three quick comments.

> The authorities continued to erode the independence of the judiciary.

This is highly debatable, though I do not claim to know enough about this issue to be able to say a lot.

> Violations of LGBTI rights persisted.

I'm not sure what exactly they mean, but I suspect this may be about so-called "same-sex marriage". The definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman is fortunately written into Polish constitution, which is quite difficult to change, so there's that. (Also, not calling a same-sex relationship a "marriage" does not really violate anyone's rights.)

> Access to abortion was further limited.

Which - given how abortion is basically killing innocent human beings - is a huge step towards freedom (more precisely, the right to live).

EDIT: also, I love how you mention Spain time and again. I can only assume you come from there, and if that's the case, I highly applaud your patriotism.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#222

Post by fsflover »

landemva wrote: post #196
fsflover wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are everyone who understands this and capable of doing this. Creating a repo is only one way to help. Supporting alternative mobile devices outside the duopoly is the other. This is exactly what I'm doing.

I'm interested. Can you share some of it?

I am using Librem 5 as a daily driver and also use Pinephone as a secondary device.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#223

Post by fsflover »

NegativeK wrote: post #205
fsflover wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already use https for almost everything, don't they? It wasn't the case from the beginning.

The impact of using https versus http is miniscule compared to the impact of using Tor versus not. Yes, I agree that everyone should have access to those technologies by default. I also think that the implementation for the layperson will make the projects almost unrecognizable.

I disagree; the impact of https is huge: your page cannot be hijacked by an intermediate party (e.g. your Internet provider). Nobody can insert malicious javascript into the page or modify its contents for a social engineering attack. You can be sure that your personal data cannot be intercepted by a third party, and so on.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#224

Post by gatekempt »

gavinhoward wrote: post #58

I absolutely agree with the article. I moved my wife and I to a Matrix server that I control, with disk encryption on top of the Matrix encryption. Signal was great for us, for a long time, but it was time to move on. I've even set up a Matrix chat server for my business for "office hours." The governments of the world have no right to see my comms with my (future) customers. And as soon as I can (when I have custome…

What client do you use? Just started looking into Matrix because of your comment.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#225

Post by gavinhoward »

gatekempt wrote: post #224
gavinhoward wrote: post #58

I absolutely agree with the article. I moved my wife and I to a Matrix server that I control, with disk encryption on top of the Matrix encryption. Signal was great for us, for a long time, but it was time to move on. I've even set up a Matrix chat server for my business for "office hours." The governments of the world have no right to see my comms with my (future) customers. And as soon as I can (when I have custome…

What client do you use? Just started looking into Matrix because of your comment.

I use the browser, Element, and Neochat.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#226

Post by anonym29 »

mplewis wrote: post #200
beeboobaa wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so sick and tired of techies infantilizing the rest of the population. It started with making apps "accessible" but the result is that they've dumbed down an entire generation by limiting them to their locked down mobile phones. Now everything supposedly should be accessible to everyone without them having to invest a second of thought, so much so that this now has somehow become the norm. People who care will fi…

The mobile phone is the only secure computer a non-techie owns.

At the low, low cost of the entirety of their privacy in their digital life.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#227

Post by rakoo »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #156
rakoo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> since the fall of the USSR and some of it's satellites states , it seemed like we were on an upward trajectory in terms of human rights, democracy and civil liberties. The fall of the USSR is the victory of capitalism and most above all the spread of neoliberalism, definitely not an upward trajectory for human rights, democracy or civil liberties. If you think it's been going up, it's because you were not in the gr…

> If you think it's been going up, it's because you were not in the group that has been crushed by it, which means you were in the group that, on the global stage, was crushing the other. Which is the group being crushed by capitalism? The major complaint against it is inequality, which in practice has meant that it has benefited some people a lot and some people only a little. There are very few people worse off und…

> Which is the group being crushed by capitalism?

The workers who are barely paid a living wage, the workers who are currently in a row with Meta because it used their work for mediation but exploited them, the workers who are currently doing all the not-artificial job of teaching AI. Capitalism works by exploiting people, globalization has just made it less visible

> So what do you want to do instead?

I want people, those who wield tools, those who build tools, those who use resources, to be the ones to decide what we build, how we build it, how much we build it. I don't want industry to regulate itself, I want the users to be their own industry, or if they don't want to/can't, to control the industry.

> Anarchy can't price externalities, how does it propose to prevent anyone from dumping in the river?

Contrary to popular belief, anarchism doesn't mean the absence of rules. How does capitalism proposes to prevent anyone from dumping in the river ? It doesn't, there are rules outside of capitalism that block it from dumping. The trick is to work out who decides the rules.

Anarchism is about taking control of our lives, of our futures. It's about doing for ourselves rather than complaining and hoping someone else does it better for us.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#228

Post by rakoo »

PeterisP wrote: post #153
rakoo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not unrealistic then, it's just a lack of will.

For human-related endeavors, motivation of the stakeholders is the key part that determines whether something is realistic or not. All kinds of technical difficulties can be fixed with effort and talent of a few people, but if something requires will of the masses and there's a lack of will, that thing is simply not going to happen no matter what you do - because there's no "just" with respect to lack of will, that's…

See my other replies: it's not about the will of the masses, it's about our collective will of us, the tech people, to build the tools that make using these technologies ubiquitous. We've been fixated on our own problems ("what is the best framework for building a blog ?") instead of acting with everyone else to build what we collectively want. It's our responsibility to be of use to the society, not just to us.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#229

Post by tripu »

johnisgood wrote: post #220
tripu wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know what reports you've read I used these reports, which I already knew before writing this post: • Both Poland and Hungary are classified as “flawed democracies” by The Economist . Only 24 countries are considered to be “full democracies” (and this is irrelevant, but Spain happens to be among them). https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/DI-final-version... • On a scale of 0–100 on political freedom,…

They classify Hungary as a "flawed democracy" because people living in Hungary do not support Western values as much as they would like them to do. I would take those classifications with a pinch of salt. Both the Hungarian government and the Hungarian people are seeking to keep their cultural values, and/or traditions. Telling them to do this and that to undermine it is going to be responded to with criticism. Of co…

I'm not denying that bias or that animosity that you describe. It may well be that Hungary is despised in some circles because it's more conservative than most European countries.

That is still compatible with a dispassionate evaluation of the democratic quality of its political system.

Again, I'm not necessarily defending my sources here. But I'm not automatically discounting them, either.

The Economist classifies Hungary as a flawed democracy due to a very poor mark in "political participation", "functioning of government" and "civil liberties". Those sections look at measures such as "voter participation/turn-out for national elections", "the degree to which the judiciary is independent of government influence", "the degree to which citizens are treated equally under the law", "how pervasive is corruption", "is there an effective system of checks and balances on the exercise of government authority", etc.

Freedom House ranks Hungary poorly in aspects such as "are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective", "are there free and independent media", "is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights– and governance-related work", "is there an independent judiciary", etc.

If you have reports that put Hungary at the top on rankings of democratic health, freedom, civil rights, etc — please share them, and we can evaluate their merits. Otherwise, these reports are the most comprehensive I know of, so I have to use those.

Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

#230

Post by PeterisP »

rakoo wrote: post #228
PeterisP wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For human-related endeavors, motivation of the stakeholders is the key part that determines whether something is realistic or not. All kinds of technical difficulties can be fixed with effort and talent of a few people, but if something requires will of the masses and there's a lack of will, that thing is simply not going to happen no matter what you do - because there's no "just" with respect to lack of will, that's…

See my other replies: it's not about the will of the masses, it's about our collective will of us, the tech people, to build the tools that make using these technologies ubiquitous. We've been fixated on our own problems ("what is the best framework for building a blog ?") instead of acting with everyone else to build what we collectively want. It's our responsibility to be of use to the society, not just to us.

IMHO in this respect we already have built 'what we collectively want', however, the limiting factor is a lack of will to use or prefer privacy-preserving solutions. The society has voted with its attention and wallets, and it doesn't want what the tech people think is good for society. You can't build a technical solution to a social problem - well, you can, but it won't get used and so it won't solve anything.
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