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Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

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Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#151

Post by stcredzero »

kybernetikos wrote: post #140
deogeo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why 1984 is such a positive, optimistic work - all the nightmarish oppression worked so well and without bias!

Yes. Miserable as oppression is, it's handy if it only hurts you in circumstances that you could predict. Incompetent oppression can get you no matter what measures you think you've taken to live a quiet life. Rather than 1984, the future we need to worry about will probably be more like something from Kafka.

Miserable as oppression is, it's handy if it only hurts you in circumstances that you could predict. Incompetent oppression can get you no matter what measures you think you've taken to live a quiet life.

Rather than 1984, the future we need to worry about will probably be more like something from Kafka.

This morning, I learned of a YouTuber with zero strikes, who followed all of the stated rules, who proactively deleted all of his demonetized videos, and yet still had his channel deleted. (1) If you talk to YouTubers, many of them, even mainstream ones, especially successful ones, will tell you that being governed on that platform is indeed Kafkaesque.

(1) - Black Pigeon Speaks. All of his opinions that I listened to were trash, but I still think he had the right to express them.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#152

Post by RandomBacon »

blablabla123 wrote: post #90
binarymax wrote: post #11

I remember back in the 90's, when Intel was going to introduce a unique identifier in their processors that could be used for authentication purposes, it caused a huge uproar and Intel backed down. [0] Having a hardware embedded unique ID that can be (is) used for tracking a known persons location at all times is probably the most intrusive privacy violation we've ever had. That we willingly carry these things around…

I also still cannot believe that people question the need for privacy so much. There is always the assumption that only people up for something evil are supposed to have something to hide. But data can always be abused and obviously privacy advocates have been repeating over and over again what bad things could happen. And then people go to extremes with Tor, Noscript, Bitcoin and the like which would be completely u…

Bitcoin isn't extreme - it's very public and trackable. Monero on the otherhand isn't.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#153

Post by rdiddly »

codezero wrote: post #87
rdiddly wrote: post #59

Clearly the solution is to leave the phone at home. It's not like you need it. (Crazy talk, right?) Or for added flair you can try dropping it off at the wrong airport or leaving it in a cab or on a train or something, but that seems riskier.

This also assumes they know that this technique is being used. Seeing this news here doesn't mean it's common knowledge or reported on in Saudi Arabia.

Mmm no, it doesn't assume that. It'll still work even if you don't know you're being tracked.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#154

Post by rdiddly »

azernik wrote: post #83
rdiddly wrote: post #59

Clearly the solution is to leave the phone at home. It's not like you need it. (Crazy talk, right?) Or for added flair you can try dropping it off at the wrong airport or leaving it in a cab or on a train or something, but that seems riskier.

It's very useful for logistics when you're on your own - finding your way to the next safe place, calling a contact, etc. The real solution is to buy a burner phone, but I don't know how easy that is for a woman in the KSA.

I didn't say it wasn't useful, I said it's not essential. And since burner phones can be traced too, I would lean toward simply planning ahead, memorizing things or writing them down, and showing up to things in person. That covers everything you need. That's how things were done for the first 40 years of my life, and it worked, and all of those things still work now. Then when you reach asylum you can think about the nice-to-haves.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#155

Post by mieseratte »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #46
mieseratte wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the point is that sometimes a tyrant is worse than cutting off the head and seeing the hydra. Of course it’s possible Iraq would’ve gone different without the Coalition Provisional Authority’s early orders.

>I believe the point is that sometimes a tyrant is worse than cutting off the head and seeing the hydra. If the last several dictators ousted from nations in the middle east teaches us anything it's that we do not want the hydra. It cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives to dump all the crap out of the Iraq vacuum. Egypt was teetering on the edge for quite awhile after the arab spring. Libya is still in rui…

Oh that was a helluva a slip. I'd meant to write sometimes a tyrant is better than the hydra.

I believe you're right on the money with your point about a local maximum.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#156

Post by microcolonel »

solarkraft wrote: post #150
microcolonel wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barring an extremely risky, one-off backdoor in the management engine or your board or device firmware; there should be no reason why your hard disk, GPU, board, memory, and NIC UUIDs (MACs are configurable, and random by default in NetworkManager and some other network configuration systems) are available to third parties on a regular basis, unless you put software on your computer to make that happen. Don't run spy…

> unless you put software on your computer to make that happen Couldn't that be ... any software?

Well, you could start by not installing software that you know exfiltrates these data, like Microsoft Windows, or Adobe Flash...

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#157

Post by solarkraft »

microcolonel wrote: post #156
solarkraft wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you put software on your computer to make that happen Couldn't that be ... any software?

Well, you could start by not installing software that you know exfiltrates these data , like Microsoft Windows, or Adobe Flash...

Even in free software, do you audit everything you install? Information security is only as strong as the weakest link.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#158

Post by microcolonel »

solarkraft wrote: post #157
microcolonel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you could start by not installing software that you know exfiltrates these data , like Microsoft Windows, or Adobe Flash...

Even in free software, do you audit everything you install? Information security is only as strong as the weakest link.

Why not start with software which isn't known to deliberately disseminate information about your computer. Sure, if you move the goalposts all day, you'll never score.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#159

Post by codezero »

rdiddly wrote: post #153
codezero wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also assumes they know that this technique is being used. Seeing this news here doesn't mean it's common knowledge or reported on in Saudi Arabia.

Mmm no, it doesn't assume that. It'll still work even if you don't know you're being tracked.

If you don’t know the phone is tracking you, how do you decide to leave the phone at home?

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#160

Post by rdiddly »

codezero wrote: post #159
rdiddly wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmm no, it doesn't assume that. It'll still work even if you don't know you're being tracked.

If you don’t know the phone is tracking you, how do you decide to leave the phone at home?

Well you might forget it or decide you don't want it anymore for unrelated reasons, thereby inadvertently solving the problem of being tracked, that you didn't know you had!

I've been taking you literally, just for giggles, but I actually get what you're talking about. But I only said the solution to being tracked is to separate from the phone. You're saying that's not a good solution to the problem because it doesn't also solve the (I would say separate) problem of making people aware of itself. But most solutions are like that. If you don't know about light bulbs, you can't decide to use them, therefore light bulbs are a bad solution to darkness? No, they solve darkness just fine; they just don't solve "awareness of light bulbs" very well.

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