Live data from Hacker News

Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

theregister.com

41–50 of 115 posts

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#41

What is strange is that this happens in several countries at the same time. I never found out why this is the case, because there can be many explanations. In general the global tendency is that the more and more digital data is there, the more and more states want to surveil people and invade onto their privacy. This is functional erosion of rights. I don't know of many states that counter that trend.

> What is strange is that this happens in several countries at the same time. Probably a coincidence that it all happens just before the World Economic Forum summit in Davos. It could be they sent the new agenda a bit earlier to allow governments to prepare themselves.

People really overestimate the WEF's influence. It's basically a fairly boring corporate conference that consists of side means and some side parties. There might be some shenanigans happening, but that happens at "nerdy" GDC as well. Years ago, we had to "invite" Register, DarkReading, SDxCentral, etc "reporters" to free booze sessions during RSA to keep them happy in the era before Nikesh Arora called out conferences like RSA for their bullshit and their ecosystem of PR leaches like The Register (notice how they've reduced their snark about HPE becuase they have a partner content relationship now).

Finally, most police forces and interior ministries have had access to offensive security tools (often called "spyware") for over a decade now.

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

conversely >Technology's proliferation centralizes political power nexuses

Closed-source propriety systems certainly have this effect (subjugation), but this is not the Free technology I am talking about.

Data and code are not the same thing. "Free technology" is just as free to enslave you as closed technology is.

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#44
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closed-source propriety systems certainly have this effect (subjugation), but this is not the Free technology I am talking about.

Data and code are not the same thing. "Free technology" is just as free to enslave you as closed technology is.

[deleted]

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better, in the US, the police have zero obligation to actually protect anybody from crime (unless that person is in government custody). The courts have upheld this time and again.

> (unless that person is in government custody) Someone please correct me, but do they ever much bother to protect those in custody?

That's tangential... they can be held liable if they fail to protect somebody that is in custody. They generally cannot be held liable for failure to protect a member of the public.

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#46
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closed-source propriety systems certainly have this effect (subjugation), but this is not the Free technology I am talking about.

Data and code are not the same thing. "Free technology" is just as free to enslave you as closed technology is.

> Data and code are not the same thing.

feels a stir in the sea. The Lisp and Haskell people died a little inside

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#48
post #6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is they'll legislate for the providers to insert back doors, negating cryptographic hardness.

They have to make custom software illegal at some point.

They don't have to make it illegal. They can just create all kinds of barriers like only allowing government approved OSes for essential services, and then using custom software can become grounds for suspicion and subject you to searches, etc.

Re: Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better, in the US, the police have zero obligation to actually protect anybody from crime (unless that person is in government custody). The courts have upheld this time and again.

Per the DOJ, there's also this: >An officer who purposefully allows a fellow officer to violate a victim's Constitutional rights may be prosecuted for failure to intervene to stop the Constitutional violation. >To prosecute such an officer, the government must show that the defendant officer was aware of the Constitutional violation, had an opportunity to intervene, and chose not to do so.

Who represents the government in these cases?
Post reply on HN