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Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

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Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#61

Post by GaryBluto »

joshstrange wrote: post #8

Do these posts just get upvoted due to the graphics/animations? I find this site incredibly difficult to read with things re-playing as you scroll up and down and the articles I've read from here are often light on details. The graphics seem very AI-generated (overlapping text and other little issues) which makes me think the whole thing is from an LLM. While this post does have some interesting information, I have t…

I can only presume it's designed for people who's attention will not be kept by sparse but fitting graphics and a well written article.

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#62

Post by conception »

csallen wrote: post #45
psadauskas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? If I had enough money that I could make a serious dent in local or even global poverty without noticing the change in my lifestyle, and I just... chose not to, I have no idea how I could sleep at night.

Huge numbers (billions) of people have enough money to make massive changes to the lives of those less fortunate than them, but don't, and prefer instead to make incremental upgrades to their own lives. New rugs, more savings, first-class airline tickets, eating out a few more times a month, etc. This is just human nature. People who are at wealth level x tend to say, "I can't believe that people at wealth level x+1…

Aaron Swartz had a good take on this - http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/handwritingwall

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#63

Post by unfitted2545 »

csallen wrote: post #45
psadauskas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? If I had enough money that I could make a serious dent in local or even global poverty without noticing the change in my lifestyle, and I just... chose not to, I have no idea how I could sleep at night.

Huge numbers (billions) of people have enough money to make massive changes to the lives of those less fortunate than them, but don't, and prefer instead to make incremental upgrades to their own lives. New rugs, more savings, first-class airline tickets, eating out a few more times a month, etc. This is just human nature. People who are at wealth level x tend to say, "I can't believe that people at wealth level x+1…

I also think this could be a symptom of an economically unequal society (which creates a higher range of x), and is a big reason why it's important to fix it, on top of the extra money to the state.

So thats essentially communism right? Is human nature incompatible with communism or is capitalism incompatible with human nature?

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#64

Post by maartin0 »

p4coder wrote: post #49
saadn92 wrote: post #16

The closing point is the one that should get more attention — every single one of these apps could be replaced by a web page. And from a product standpoint, there's really only one reason to ship a native app when your content is just press releases and weather alerts: you want access to APIs the browser won't give you. Background location, biometrics, device identity, boot triggers — none of that is available throug…

Today morning, I was checking TSA wait times. Guess what, they want you to install their app to get the wait time. [1] [1]( https://www.dhs.gov/check-wait-times )

In their defence, there is a fairly nice website too, not sure why it needs to have its own logo though

https://bwt.cbp.gov/

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#66

Post by JumpCrisscross »

fhdkweig wrote: post #59
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> regardless of election outcome, the next government is highly unlikely to roll this back Well yes, it’s not a high priority. I’m not going to bring it up with my electeds. Are you? If everyone who thinks this is a huge deal is too lazy and nihilistic to do anything about it, it won’t be prioritized.

As long as it isn't mandatory like the Russian Max app, I wouldn't worry. The only reason to dislike it (other than privacy issues) is the money spent to develop it (which has already been spent). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_(app)

> only reason to dislike it (other than privacy issues) is the money spent to develop it (which has already been spent)

There are plenty of reasons to dislike it. The money spent to develp it. The attention spent to maintain it. The abuse of users' goodwill. Dilution of the FBI's brand with a circa 2008. None of these are good. None of them are, frankly, issues I'm going to personally engage on.

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#67

Post by malfist »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39
malfist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I specifically did not say money makes them mentally ill, but rather the type of person that seeks to hoard so much wealth that they have billions is correlated with mental illness.

> the type of person that seeks to hoard so much wealth that they have billions is correlated with mental illness Do we have any actual evidence of this? I know plenty of exorbitantly wealthy people who aren’t hoarding anything, they just didn’t sell their piece of the closely-held business they started, and they spend their time skiing, reading, travelling and taking care of their friends and family.

There's a hell of a difference between a multimillionare who has a successful business and a billionare.

The difference between a person who has a million dollars and a person who has a billion dollars is about a billion dollars.

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#68

Post by alephnerd »

nickburns wrote: post #31
alephnerd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Background location, biometrics, device identity, boot triggers — none of that is available through a browser Most browsers do in fact offer that level of granularity, especially for PWA usecases [0]. And from an indicators perspective, having certain capabilities turned off can make it easier to identify and de-anonymize individuals. [0] - https://pwascore.com/

Fingerprint? Yeah. Deanonymize? No. There's a considerable difference. And doing whatever one can to mitigate the former shouldn't be discouraged by falsely equivocating the latter.

Nope. Actual deanonymization.

You will of course need a couple additional threat intel feeds because what is provided via the browser itself isn't enough, but third party data vendors along with threat intel vendors are fairly cost effective.

I've seen a couple actual live demos of deanonymization a couple years ago - it's a capability that has existed in the Offensive Security space for a couple years now. And the company I'm alluding to is already live in Japan and Israel.

Re: Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

#69

Post by JumpCrisscross »

malfist wrote: post #67
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the type of person that seeks to hoard so much wealth that they have billions is correlated with mental illness Do we have any actual evidence of this? I know plenty of exorbitantly wealthy people who aren’t hoarding anything, they just didn’t sell their piece of the closely-held business they started, and they spend their time skiing, reading, travelling and taking care of their friends and family.

There's a hell of a difference between a multimillionare who has a successful business and a billionare. The difference between a person who has a million dollars and a person who has a billion dollars is about a billion dollars.

> a hell of a difference between a multimillionare who has a successful business and a billionare

Yeah, I'm saying the ones worth hundreds of millions to low billions who aren't on social media are, in my personal experience, often fine people. The ones I don't like are the ones on social media, but that's also true of the folks worth a few thousand dollars.

Plenty of billionaires are assholes. The world's GDP is over $100 trillion. That's going to produce diversity among the rich.

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