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Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

bbc.com

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#111

Post by zerkten »

kibwen wrote: post #50

If technology becomes necessary to participate in society, and if we cede control of that technology to unaccountable dystopian hypercorporations like Microsoft, Google, and Apple, then we're setting ourselves up for disaster.

It's worth pointing out that this same lockout situation can and has happened in many more cases than listed here. It happens that the timing coincides with a specific service use, but the problem of people getting locked out of their life because Google blocked access to their account is an old one. Unfortunately, your point will be forgotten by many once this episode passes, and we'll be back to ignoring how much control has been ceded.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#113

Post by GrassTheKayaks »

utkarsh858 wrote: post #104
bhouston wrote: post #8

Was this decision made in Redmond or in Israel? Microsoft has offices in Israel and these offices are likely responsible for things happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel is currently at "war" with Gaza and having Israeli employees of Microsoft having the ability to disable anyone's account calling civilians in Gaza is pretty horrible. Is Microsoft via Skype and Hotmail participating in what Israel's lea…

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#114

Post by jermaustin1 »

andsoitis wrote: post #35
viraptor wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends how close your closest physical branch is. It may be hours away because of where you live. Or it may be a flight away because you're abroad.

You can call your bank. They can verify your identity over the phone and banks do so routinely.

Some banks do so routinely.

Not all banks in all countries do this. One of my banks required me to email my passport, drivers license, and case number to the person I was talking to over the phone in order to prove my identity.

My passport was 1000 miles away. My drivers license was expired (was living in NYC at the time, and not driving). My bank had no physical branches outside of the state of Louisiana.

All of this after answering the security question, and providing my SSN. How I eventually was able to re-enable my account was calling a friend who worked in the mortgage department to have my account reset. If I didn't have a friend at the bank, I wouldn't have been able to reset my account without flying either back to NYC or having a family member drive me from Texas to Louisiana.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#115

Post by invalidname »

hedora wrote: post #85
invalidname wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has R&D centers and local business centers. Skype is not in Israel and there's no reason for a VoIP solution to route through a country local facility. The "complete siege" ended ages ago. Israel provides power, food etc.

Quick fact check: According to the UN, there is now a famine in Gaza because of Israel's actions: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/10/is-there-famine-in-... > “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the right to food and the s…

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#116

Post by atlas_hugged »

utkarsh858 wrote: post #104
bhouston wrote: post #8

Was this decision made in Redmond or in Israel? Microsoft has offices in Israel and these offices are likely responsible for things happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel is currently at "war" with Gaza and having Israeli employees of Microsoft having the ability to disable anyone's account calling civilians in Gaza is pretty horrible. Is Microsoft via Skype and Hotmail participating in what Israel's lea…

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#117

Post by [deleted] »

wincy wrote: post #100
casenmgreen wrote: post #89

Every time I read a story like this, about MS or Google or Twitter or which-ever big corporate it is, I'm so glad that I exited these platforms and years ago. I left LinkedIn before MS bought it, because it was clear it was being copied by all and sundry. I left GitHub once MS bought it (and I thank God for that, ever time I see another story about MS being awful). I never used Google - they were obviously evil and f…

Curious, what sort of phone do you use?

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#118

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

I've spread my life around several email providers, including myself. I have at least 50 email accounts (inc pre-Microsoft Hotmail).

In the last 10 years, I've lost access to ~5 accounts, usually when the provider axed their free offerings (is fine). In every case, I had warning and time to switch.

If I lose access to one w/o warning, it would be a problem but not catastrophic.

In short: What is the trivial solution to not risking sudden catastrophic loss of email? I don't think there is one. The answers are high-effort, high-maintenance. Technical ability can lessen that some.

    note: The reason I don't lean into self-hosted mail harder is spam filtering. I've hosted mail for small biz and have put many, many hours into reducing spam. On top of the usual edge solutions, I write scripts to help mitigate spam and malware campaigns.

    But the more visible my domain, the more anti-spam work is required and that state only ever ratchets one way.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#120

Post by psychoslave »

dartos wrote: post #73
psychoslave wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can even put @ . Let’s note however that even "owning a domain" is an illusion of control, as IANA is ultimately a retainer of uncle Sam. I don’t know if there is any functional distributed alternative that promote more autonomy to end users that can works out of the box (or even just a few basic install steps away) in most digital terminal out there.

Didn’t the US give up direct control of IANA years ago?

This is technically correct, indeed. Now it’s ICANN, a non-profit organization to which the responsibility was transferred to. ICANN is based in California and if I’m not mistaking, operates under usual law regime of this state — unlike embassies or consulates for example.

https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/icann-still...

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