> Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian.
That's pretty funny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PRISM_Collection_Details.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Upstream-slide.jpg
GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
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Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#72Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#73[deleted]
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even though webcam stills may be the least important (or useful) spying the US and UK Blackmail. Polticial, economic, and spying-related informant-turning blackmail. The CIA's primary business is getting informants and agents all over the world. Usually via some threat. This is perfect fodder for it. Using cheating and sex (ie homosexuality in the 50s) against people is one of the most classic examples of recruitin…
I'd wager that this is one reason homosexuality has been held as taboo for so long: it can be weaponized against your enemies for leverage and power.
that's like saying the only reason people aren't impervious to bullets is because governments wish to use guns to kill people.
there will always be something taboo in society to blackmail people with.
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#75"Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from the users' feeds, partly to comply with human rights legislation, and also to avoid overloading GCHQ's servers."
Ummm, "comply with human rights legislation" ... what? Are they implying that they was a human rights watchdog involved that confirmed that their approach was "legal"? Or, is the more likely case that they assume that their activities are legal internally -> ergo we're fine to proceed? That phase in itself is a HUGE red flag to me.
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#76This is from people actively webchatting, but in general, for passive collection, I'm a lot more worried about my microphone than my camera. Even without tape over the lens, my laptop usually just sees my face or a blank wall, or a closed cover. It's not like I have my webcam aimed and lighted at my bed or shower or whatever, and in general, the level of compromising information from text or audio would be higher (sure, naked photos could be embarrassing, but there's nothing particularly unique about them at the national-security level).
I haven't heard much call for "physically disable microphone" switches, though. If anything things have gotten worse with laptops; at least with desktops it was pretty common to just not have a microphone connected. I suspect 99% of laptops have a decent microphone built in, no indicator light, etc.
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, in this case. It doesn't fill me with confidence that 'they' aren't remotely activating and recording images without our knowledge though. As to topicality, it depends how narrow your interpretation of the topic is.
FBI has already done that for years in US. This is how they "protected us" - by not telling anyone about such bugs for years. How can you then trust anything they say about "cyber security"? They don't care about cyber security, only cyber offense . http://nypost.com/2013/12/08/fbi-can-turn-on-your-web-cam/
Offense seems way easier and cheaper than defense. (I'd like to say similar things about US military operations.)
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's our governments, it's not us. I'm disgusted too, which is why I'm reporting them to the police.
Can you report back on the results? I'd be very interested in finding out how they respond. I think they have to register a crime and give you a crime number if you ask for one.
will do, I'm currently looking at how best to report it but I'll post here when it's done.
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#79ISTR that in the futuristic dystopia depicted in V for Vendetta , there are government spy cameras everywhere, including in people's bedrooms. And it turns out that's not so futuristic. We're already there. The moment it became technically (Edit: and really, economically) feasible to spy on people's bedrooms, our governments leapt at the chance. I wonder what Alan Moore would have to say about that. We didn't have to…
>We didn't have to experience a crisis of social, governmental, or financial instability.
September 11th and the London train bombings? No argument against how disturbing this all is, but don't feel it's accurate to say this increased surveillance wasn't caused by a crisis. It's all being done in the name of preventing terrorism, significant acts of which have occurred in the last decade both on US and UK soil.
So if anything, it's exactly like you stated, a traumatic event(s) has resulted in government(s) taking unreasonable measures and expanding powers to embrace a new "soft" totalitarianism.
Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide
#80This really isn't any worse than the other invasions of privacy that have been revealed – but it's much easier to point at it as an egregious and visceral violation of privacy. Even though webcam stills may be the least important (or useful) spying the US and UK have been doing, this may be some of the best fodder for arguments to limit such activities. So thank you, UK, for being so dumb.
> Even though webcam stills may be the least important (or useful) spying the US and UK Blackmail. Polticial, economic, and spying-related informant-turning blackmail. The CIA's primary business is getting informants and agents all over the world. Usually via some threat. This is perfect fodder for it. Using cheating and sex (ie homosexuality in the 50s) against people is one of the most classic examples of recruitin…
Bingo. The effectiveness of a textual evidence pales in comparison to photographic evidence.
Sexually explicit images are quite useful for blackmailing.