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Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

reuters.com

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Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#411

Post by miloignis »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #303

It's crazy to me that so much effort is being expended pretending that companies and the government are doing anything in the name of privacy, when we have all the proof by Assange and Snowden that they're doing realtime surveillance of ALL communications, 24x7 -- no matter what any laws say -- and we don't even talk about it any more. What's the point of any of this? All we can do is assume that our every position,…

While I believe that you can't solve (at least permanently) political problems with technology, and we need political action, you can prevent a good bit of surveillance with technology if you invest in setting it up.

E2EE for chats (Matrix, Signal, or XMPP) is pretty solid I think. More shaky, Tor/reputable VPNs or some combo for browsing. FOSS ROMs for phones (Graphene), or Librum/PinePhone if you can deal with not always having a working phone.

It's not a great situation, but it's not hopeless!

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#412

Post by Der_Einzige »

MR4D wrote: post #62

Ron Ryden has been barking up this tree for a long time: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/issues/secret-law https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-colle... https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-intro... https://www.wyden.senate.gov/priorities/gps-act https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-relea...

Gosh I am so happy to have like the best senator in the senate next to Bernie Sanders in Oregon.

Oregon is an extremely based state. Y'all crap on PDX but the reality is that we have more freedom and less tyranny here than in any other state in the nation, and possibly in the world. PDX is "bad" because it's one of the only places in the world that hated the cops enough to actually muzzle them - and not living in fear of the boot is worth needing to deal with homeless people.

Want to smoke weed? Check (lowest prices in the world). Want to do psychedelics? (functionally legalized) Check. Want to shoot guns? (relatively lax gun laws for a blue state) Check. Want to not be spied on? As check as Ron Wyden can make it!

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#414

Post by autoexec »

colordrops wrote: post #367
riversflow wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe the risk to our freedom is much greater from the latter. I’ll take power being consolidated in a democratically elected government over a privately controlled corporation any day of the week. Let’s put the spotlight on the stuff that isn’t democratically controlled, and subject to much more limited oversight.

The US government isn't really democratically controlled, which is obvious to anyone paying attention, and this Princeton paper proves it: https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/idr.pdf

You know what does control the government? Corporations. Seems like that's where our focus needs to be regardless.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#415

Post by soraminazuki »

iwontberude wrote: post #409
soraminazuki wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He even inspired Snowden to expose the illegal mass surveillance programs. IIRC Snowden reached a breaking point when James Clapper, then director of national intelligence, lied under oath to Congress when pressed about domestic surveillance by senator Wyden. It's sad we don't hear more about people like this in positions of power.

Good thing there is no penalties for lying under oath anymore. That pesky rule of law was so long in the tooth.

There are instead life destroying penalties being handed out to whistleblowers. What a world we live in.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#416

Post by cronix »

standardUser wrote: post #405

The only way out of this mess is with new laws and that will require new lawmakers. Any other solution - relying on the kindness of corporations, toiling away with obscure technologies, gong 'off the grid' - are all foolish or unrealistic for 99% or so of people and shouldn't even be considered. The most promising starting point is probably at the state level.

I'm not sure new laws will matter much considering they've been breaking the existing laws through creative interpretation.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#417

Post by jaywalk »

onionisafruit wrote: post #258
xyst wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IP geolocation isn’t exactly the most precise though. 600M+ IPs have a default location to some farm in Kansas [1] [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/1...

I should have been more specific. Although they could use IP geolocation, they can also get data from the cell carrier that delivered the notification to that IP address. So a gov finds that IP address 7.8.9.0 received one of these notifications at 12:34. They then see that 7.8.9.0 is one of ATT’s addresses. They go to ATT and learn that address was used by their customer onionisafruit at 12:34 and the device was 5ms…

Notifications aren't sent to IP addresses, so none of this matters.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#418

Post by mark_l_watson »

standardUser wrote: post #405

The only way out of this mess is with new laws and that will require new lawmakers. Any other solution - relying on the kindness of corporations, toiling away with obscure technologies, gong 'off the grid' - are all foolish or unrealistic for 99% or so of people and shouldn't even be considered. The most promising starting point is probably at the state level.

The Libertarian party might fit our needs for privacy, but very few people belong to the party. As a liberal, I started listening to the Ron Paul (Libertarian, retired US Senator) podcast at least once a week. Maybe because I am older, but what he says mostly makes sense to me.

(Now I expect to get in trouble here because I mentioned a third party, that is fine with me.)

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#420

Post by PrimeMcFly »

forward1 wrote: post #374
PrimeMcFly wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't get put on a list, it will just be assumed they don't do anything via a smartphone.

Signals Intelligence is not based on mere assumptions.

Fine. They won't get put on a list for exhibiting the same behavioral pattern as a significant portion of other people in the population.
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