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Time to start de-Appling

heatherburns.tech

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Re: Time to start de-Appling

#221

Post by denkmoon »

thewebguyd wrote: post #138
InTheArena wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first two are reasonable positions. The third, on the merits of the argument in the article, is absolutely bonkers. It's the UK government that is unleashing this stupidity on the world. There is no European alternative that is any safer, and it's the UK's own hands that are at fault in the first place. Not that there aren't other reasons to be skeptical of American companies' right, but it's just so easy to fall…

> but it's just so easy to fall into nationalistic prattle instead of fixing the real problem. Right. This, right now, is 100% a UK problem. De-Americanising your tech stack isn't going to fix the political issues domestically. Hence Apple pulling ADP out, they made the choice of not complying with the UK and not offering the service instead of compromising the service for everyone else in the world. UK citizens need…

Oh yes, the UK is very keen on Reform. Reform in this case however is the death rattle of a long dead empire.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#222

Post by zanellato19 »

smsm42 wrote: post #156
cjs_ac wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike most writing about politics, the article isn't arguing that 'those are the bad people over there'. The article describes a current aspect of reality and how it came about, and suggests a way of responding to that reality.

The right way to respond to this reality would be to stop UK government from being insane by electing a more sane government. Stopping using iphones is going to help only for a short term - once encryption is de-legalized, they will come for everybody who they deem worth coming for, sooner or later. If it'll require introducing licenses to run encryption software and mandating key escrow, they'd do that. Yes, you sti…

That isn't a reasonable response because governments can't be changed in a whim and aren't controlled by a single person, two good things.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#223

Post by arevno »

smsm42 wrote: post #143
disambiguation wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

# Encrypt a file openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in secret.txt -out secret.enc # Decrypt openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in secret.enc -out secret.txt Wow that was hard.

You may think you're being sarcastic, but you are just stating a true fact here. For about 99.9% of this planet's population, it's not just hard, it's something they'd never ever know how to do and have no intention to ever learn. Like it or hate it, but that's what it is. And, for 99.9% of people who know how to do that, they'd still be too lazy to do it properly (hint: where do you keep secret.txt exactly? What hap…

> it's something they'd never ever know how to do

There are hundreds of millions of people who have memorized megabytes of baseball statistics, pop song lyrics, celebrity relationship trivia, vehicle model data, sitcom character biographies, comic book plots, makeup shades, travel routes, mixed drink recipes, MtG card modifiers, etc.

At a certain point, one has to realize that pulling the "normie card" is not a viable excuse, given the wide array of knowledge that humans routinely pack into their brains.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#224

Post by ungreased0675 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #138
InTheArena wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first two are reasonable positions. The third, on the merits of the argument in the article, is absolutely bonkers. It's the UK government that is unleashing this stupidity on the world. There is no European alternative that is any safer, and it's the UK's own hands that are at fault in the first place. Not that there aren't other reasons to be skeptical of American companies' right, but it's just so easy to fall…

> but it's just so easy to fall into nationalistic prattle instead of fixing the real problem. Right. This, right now, is 100% a UK problem. De-Americanising your tech stack isn't going to fix the political issues domestically. Hence Apple pulling ADP out, they made the choice of not complying with the UK and not offering the service instead of compromising the service for everyone else in the world. UK citizens need…

Last time I was in the UK, the news (BBC) was bizarrely 90% American politics. Trump this, Trump did that, etc. People there knew American politicians better than the people who actually represent them.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#225

Post by TexanFeller »

Unfortunately the user friendly non-Apple alternatives like Google devices and services are dramatically worse than Apple’s when it comes to privacy.

Years ago when I was still giving Android a chance I found that things like banking apps refused to work if I loaded a custom ROM or IIRC even if I enabled superuser access on the stock ROM. Those things are probably even more tightly controlled now, so de-Googled Android doesn’t seem worth trying again.

Too bad other truly OSS mobile options are in their infancy, heck I couldn’t even get all the drivers configured stably on a work provided laptop with Linux support supposedly validated by the manufacturer. It could be years before we get good OSS phone and tablet software, if it ever comes at all.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#227

Post by zmmmmm »

I know this is a tangent but honestly, this is why the Google decision to de-openify Android is insane even from Google's point of view. Who would want to be an iron clad gate keeper when the world is descending into authoritarianism? You just paint a giant target on your back for the authoritarians to come after.

If Apple had supported open iCloud alternatives for backup and other services from day one, it woudn't even be a discussion now. The UK probably wouldn't have thought of the idea of mandating against E2E encryption because it would be self evident it would actually just churn people to alternatives where they have less leverage and visibility. But Apple couldn't resist bricking up the walled garden and now it's hostile to both them and their users, and to be honest, everyone on the planet since it is obvious that once this happens in the UK it will be silly for every government everywhere not to follow suit.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#228

Post by einpoklum »

TexanFeller wrote: post #225

Unfortunately the user friendly non-Apple alternatives like Google devices and services are dramatically worse than Apple’s when it comes to privacy. Years ago when I was still giving Android a chance I found that things like banking apps refused to work if I loaded a custom ROM or IIRC even if I enabled superuser access on the stock ROM. Those things are probably even more tightly controlled now, so de-Googled Andro…

Both Apple and Google guarantee you a total _breach_ of your privacy: They are known to share most or all of your data, that's on their servers / comm lines, with branches of the US government, en masse, pursuant to agreements or compelling arrangements. This is the PRISM program, revealed last decade by CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

As for other uses of your data, and what they "send back home", there you might be right about the differences between Apple and Google, but I would again not put faith in either.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#229

Post by protocolture »

InTheArena wrote: post #134
thw_9a83c wrote: post #29

From the article: > Otherwise, please make sure you de-Apple, de-Google, and de-American Stack yourself when you have time, clarity, and focus to do it. Start today. I don't understand the core of this advice. So if you're in the UK and do all the above, can you suddenly get similar E2EE cloud storage from a different provider without a UK government-mandated backdoor?

The first two are reasonable positions. The third, on the merits of the argument in the article, is absolutely bonkers. It's the UK government that is unleashing this stupidity on the world. There is no European alternative that is any safer, and it's the UK's own hands that are at fault in the first place. Not that there aren't other reasons to be skeptical of American companies' right, but it's just so easy to fall…

>The first two are reasonable positions. The third, on the merits of the argument in the article, is absolutely bonkers. It's the UK government that is unleashing this stupidity on the world. There is no European alternative that is any safer, and it's the UK's own hands that are at fault in the first place.

Disagree. Australia and also likely Canada have identical these laws. And once the capability is in place, its likely that the US can all writs access to the same tool. Apple is unique in that it has a semi legal canary, in choosing to withdraw the services instead of complying.

You cant trust any tech company that remains located in the 5 eyes nations.

I am not aware of good alternatives, but worst case you can run up a VPS with Owncloud or something.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#230

Post by al_borland »

sargun wrote: post #193
ebbi wrote: post #157

Taking inspiration from the East India Company, Apple should colonize the UK and take over the government - the iGovernment, if you will. Citizens will regain their right to e2ee privacy, they will not have to deal with voting for mediocre politicians to lead them. Instead, Tim Cook will be their new leader, and every morning over the mandatory installation of HomePods in each home, citizens will be greeted with an e…

I have wondered why the likes of McKinsey, KPMG, and PWC do not put up candidates (don't even sponsor them, just say you're electing _well known consultancy_).

That sounds like a nightmare.
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