Yet another reason to be a happy GAPPSless LineageOS user
You're kidding yourself if you think three letter agencies don't have LOS users on a list and have capabilities to spy on them on demand with tailored access.
Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
141–150 of 649 posts
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#142Hey 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…
Pobody's Nerfect
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like an attempt to ban political expression that is certainly protected by the First Amendment.
Wyden knows such a bill wouldn't pass specifically because of its unconstitutionality. This was about picking up media coverage by throwing red meat at voters. Congress has been in a state of deadlock for too long to pass any actual laws, so this type of performative theater ahead of midterm elections is what passes for statesmanship.
That's awfully generous. He co-sponsored a bad law that he didn't actually want to see passed?
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#144Just an evil life pro-tip... if you're doing criminal things, leave your phone at home. Or better yet, grab a "buddy's" phone.
You'll never be a criminal with that level of opsec.
You have to randomly leave your phone at home for criminal and non-criminal things. That way, there's a plausible alibi that your phone was at home or on you at the time of the crime.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yet it is the US government who revealed it Less "the government" and more "a member of government", the same member who has revealed and demanded accountability when discovering domestic government overreach. We should choose our congress critters carefully.
Congress has so little power its becoming a vestigial organ. Only there to placate the masses who believe their vote makes any impact.
This is some wacko BS. Congress has tons of power which can impact your daily lives. If you think it doesn't have that power, you're just not well read on the subject. If you think modern day politics of us vs them divisiveness gives the impression that they cannot do any thing is a dangerous interpretation. It's also a bit sophomoric of an interpretation as well.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
And now we understand why they do that.
It is driven entirely by battery life. Android used to allow 3rd party apps to receive push notifications, and it caused battery life to be terrible compared to Apple. Forcing a single path was done for that reason. Btw, here's the telegram team complaining about the change: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/mas... Facebook abused this a bunch. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/01…
Allowing other notification systems would hardly have an impact (especially when someone could replace GCM entirely with them)
And you can simply offer more battery controls, rather than general not overridable rules
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#147Unifiedpush to save the day! And an XMPP server with Conversations can be the basis for it: Https://unifiedpush.org/users/distributors/conversations/
Stop promoting and trusting Conversations. Is it bad software which never did OTR verification properly before yanking it unexpectedly and without explanation. To my knowledge it has never been independently audited let alone taken seriously enough by any infosec professionals to warrant such study.
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like an attempt to ban political expression that is certainly protected by the First Amendment.
It’s already pretty much the law. You can submit your complaints to the Office of Anti-Boycott Compliance [1]. Foreign governments can’t force government contractors to comply with boycotts. This bill AFAIK simply closes the loophole of Palestine not technically being a foreign government. [1]: https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac
That's not the same thing. This isn't about foreign government demands, it's about US states being legally able to discriminate against contractors who participate in BDS. (Edit: in fact it's about contractors who refuse to sign a pledge that they won't ever participate in BDS)
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#149"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?
We already know, it's the Five Eyes
Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
#150Would be great to see an example of notification metadata that can supposedly link it to real users.
Seems like this is what is being implied:
Given:
- users with notifications enabled
- have X app installed
- targeted user(s) reside in USA
- targeted users(s) following “foo” on X app
When:
- issue FISA warrant for all smartphone users that received notifications in regards to “foo” user
Then:
- able to pull all Apple/Google accounts that match this criteria
- able to get real addresses and names
- can crosscheck names with other details to narrow down suspect
Or maybe it’s something even worse where notifications somehow leak location data