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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

#521

Post by readyplayernull »

jodrellblank wrote: post #327

> " "In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information," the company said in a statement. "Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests." " When they were building the CSAM detector: "what if the government asks you to extend the detection to include other media such as political meme images?" "we would refuse".

We can safely assume they are already doing it, it's just that laws are coming slowly to normalize this survelance so they can't tell us just yet. Vote for those laws to learn more.

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

#522

Post by verisimi »

standardUser wrote: post #495
verisimi wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want the state to write laws to prevent it spying on its citizens?

I want legislators to pass laws that prevent spying by the executive branch. I don't care who writes them.

But, who do you think sanctions this stuff in the first place? I think it's an insane expectation to think that government would sanction itself, when it is also requesting and enabling the ability to spy on citizens!

I think you've read the government's self promotional material, and believe it - that it's trying to do the best for its citizens, keep people safe, etc as opposed to seeing it for what it is, which is a mafia exploration racket that keeps it's major beneficiaries out of public view.

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

#523

Post by arcticfox »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #412
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 fea…

> Want to smoke weed? Check (lowest prices in the world)

One of the biggest reasons I'm happy I moved away from my home in Oregon. The second-hand weed smoke is gross.

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

#524

Post by bkallus »

t0bia_s wrote: post #514
bkallus wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't necessarily true. When you install the Signal app on an Android phone that doesn't have Google Play Services installed, it receives push notifications using its own notification daemon instead of using Google's. This, of course, has significant battery life costs.

Not true. Battery double liftime on my LineageOS device without gaaps and other gservices that constantly connect to gservers.

All I can say is that Signal uses more battery than any other app on my phone. Since my Pixel 7a's last complete charge 3 days ago, Signal has been in the foreground for only 2 hours, but it has been running in the background the entire time.

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

#525

Post by jjav »

heywoodlh wrote: post #262

One question I have as someone who tries to maintain (some) data sovereignty: is there any way as an end-user to circumvent/mitigate this kind of surveillance — aside from abandoning iOS and Android completely?

> aside from abandoning iOS and Android completely?

These platforms are so opaque and completely controlled by US corporations (so we know they are beholden to NSLs etc). If you care about your data and privacy, the best suggestion is to avoid phone platforms completely for anything important.

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

#526

Post by mcculley »

mandmandam wrote: post #487
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with that. If blasting music can be a matter for legislation (nuisance laws and the like), then so can bothering people around you with the reek of smoking weed.

As mentioned, there are already laws around smoking in public. OP is complaining that he might get a whiff coming from his neighbors house.

I recently visited Manhattan and walked many miles touring it. The smell was in many places, with people smoking out in public. It is offensive and rude.

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

#527

Post by [deleted] »

eggy wrote: post #96

Given a lot of journalists and activists use encrypted communications to be able to do their job without being unduly or unjustly persecuted (yes, the bad guys use them too!), and 12 US State Attorney Generals just signed a letter and delivered it to the major news agencies (NYT, CNN, Reuters, AP, etc.) that warns of any "support to terrorist organizations" and specifically points out Hamas, but is not very clear on…

[deleted]

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

#528

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

With respect to the US, I would be more worried about Apple and Google spying on users through push notifications. Americans have legal protections against government spying but they have basically zero protections against spying by so-called "tech" companies. Neither Apple nor Google can demand information about citizens from the government, but the government can demand this from Apple or Google, which they do, successfully, with increasing frequency. People share details of their lives with Apple and Google they would probably never share with the government but the government has little trouble getting it from these so-called "tech" companies, without any notice to the user, so sharing these details with Apple and Google is arguably even worse. The ability for people to fight against this sharing of information is nonexistent; it's up to the companies to resist. Given the number of users whose data they hold, that simply is not feasible. These companies do not care about peoples' privacy. They seek to profit from learning every detail of peoples' lives. Commercial surveillance.

When the government asks citizens for information it's usually for a specific purpose and can only be used for that purpose. When so-called "tech" companies collect information, it is for any purpose. They might assure users that "the information is only used to improve the software or service". What limits does this create, if any. How dow we verify that the company is not using our information in ways that compromise our interests if we are not allowed to learn how the company is using the information. Imagine if the government assured people that the information it collects "will only be used to improve the government".

Not every computer is a national security threat or even a common criminal, i.e., a person that the government has some need to spy on. That's not who I am referring to in this comment. These so-called "tech" companies spy on everyone. And they don't just want to know about one thing, for one purpose, they want to know everything for any purpose.

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

#529

Post by coolspot »

withinboredom wrote: post #451
jjtheblunt wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Apple's Airtag devices use mesh networking of some sort.

I imagine they designed it the way they did specifically to prevent law enforcement from tapping them.

Not law enforcement, but random punks. Law enforcement can get your airtag private keys from your iCloud backup.

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

#530

Post by xenadu02 »

michh wrote: post #317
robbiet480 wrote: post #306

We at the Home Assistant Companion for iOS team have been wanting to implement end to end encryption for our push notifications for a while now but Apple has denied our request for the com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering [0] entitlement multiple times. Wondering if with today's news we could apply again and get it. For context, we are sending ~35 million push notifications per month on iOS and ~67 million…

for my understanding, you need that entitlement so you can send an encrypted invisible notification which you can then decrypt locally in your app and push out again as a local notification that doesn't go over the network (i.e. not use apns)? Or is doing this kind of stuff just weirdly tied to that specific entitlement?

No, you do not need this just for decryption. This entitlement is only required if you want your Notification Extension to be able to silently eat the notification. Normally an extension must transform the notification then the system presents it to the user.

APNS is not a "let my server wake up my app in the background whenever and however often I like" mechanism.

Defer handling other things until either your extension or your app would have run anyway and do them at that time.

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