It's a huge problem for both privacy and the open source ecosystem that Apple and Google mandate use of their own notification system for apps to be included in their stores.
Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
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Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#22Do push notifications still get sent and just ignored if they are disabled on the device?
I’m no expert but in my experience developing mobile applications & push notifications, I’ve only registered a device for notifications (and subsequently sent notifications) if the user opted in. Based on my own experience, I would say if you didn’t enable notifications for a particular service or app, they don’t get sent.
The app developer will still send them to Apple / Google though so the data will still be available to snoop on.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#23Hey other states, can you elect a few more Ron Wydens? He's been doing a ton of the heavy lifting lately. Every time we hear about the intelligence community egregiously violating civil liberties, it's always Wyden.
Yeah he's awesome. /s
In May 2017, Wyden co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,[88] for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government. The bill would make it legal for U.S. states to refuse to do business with contractors that engage in boycotts against Israel.[89] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Wyden#Israel
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I see that there is a lot of signal What signals are you talking about? Someone tends to respond to Tinder's notifications at 6 PM on weekends, and such useless data?
Suppose you use an anonymous app for messaging. The government sees the conversation ("good day to you") but doesn't know who is on one side (perhaps both). So they ask Apple "who exactly sent or received on their phone a push notification for 'good day to you'?" Or perhaps "who sent or received push notifications from secure messaging app around 8:24:39.124 pm, 8:26:12.322, etc.?" Apple tells them, and now they know…
The content of almost every messaging app push notification is already encrypted. So I think it's mainly for knowing when someone receives a notification.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what way would ignoring a viable SIGINT source be incompetent? Just thinking about only my push notifications yesterday and they revealed that I am clearly a developer or technologist (push notifications from Git/AWS/etc), who got a haircut (time and location were revealed in the message, but I'm sure government-level agencies could have tracked which SportClips location the appointment belonged to), that I am int…
> Just thinking about only my push notifications yesterday See, the gist in the letter is this sentence: "As with all of the other information these companies store for or about their users, because Apple and Google deliver push notification data, they can be secretly compelled by governments to hand over this information." Do you really think that a foreign government is interested in push notifications when issuing…
Push notifications can leak information from secure or encrypted apps. Its easier to get around E2E encryption than breaking the encryption itself
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#26Hey other states, can you elect a few more Ron Wydens? He's been doing a ton of the heavy lifting lately. Every time we hear about the intelligence community egregiously violating civil liberties, it's always Wyden.
Yeah he's awesome. /s In May 2017, Wyden co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,[88] for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government. The bill would make it legal for U.S. states…
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. How is that acceptable and democratic?
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#27"The source declined to identify the foreign governments involved in making the requests but described them as democracies allied to the United States"
- why not identify them?
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#28Are the contents of push notifications not encrypted? Or are we talking about payloads rather than transport?
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah he's awesome. /s In May 2017, Wyden co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,[88] for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government. The bill would make it legal for U.S. states…
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. How is that acceptable and democratic?
I am being sarcastic ;) the guy is supposed to be a freedom fighter for privacy/security but is trying to ban boycotts, the most basic form of protest, and integral to US democracy.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah he's awesome. /s In May 2017, Wyden co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,[88] for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government. The bill would make it legal for U.S. states…
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. How is that acceptable and democratic?
It already in exists in the form of Anti-BDS laws. 35 states already have them