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Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

reuters.com

151–160 of 649 posts

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#151
A paranoid part of me has wondered if some of the text/phone spam we all receive is actually used to stimulate cellphones for tracking purposes.

If you have deeper access to the OS, then fingerprint unlock or FaceID also seem important for positive identification prior to, for example, a Predator strike.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#152
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m no expert but in my experience developing mobile applications & push notifications, I’ve only registered a device for notifications (and subsequently sent notifications) if the user opted in. Based on my own experience, I would say if you didn’t enable notifications for a particular service or app, they don’t get sent.

The app developer will still send them to Apple / Google though so the data will still be available to snoop on.

Dunno how it is now but it used to be that Apple would tell you which push tokens (recipients) were rejected (app uninstalled, push disabled for your app, or you stored a bad token to begin with) and you were supposed to stop sending to them, with the implication that Apple would get upset with you if you kept sending to rejecting tokens for too long.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#153
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s likely the five eyes allied nations.

Yep. Most likely to try and catch Chinese spies or other countries like India, Iran, Russia, and others as they continue to go after dissidents abroad.

Or to track US activists and resell the information to the US government, in exchange for data on other five-eyes citizens or access to other surveillance systems (US ones are obviously the best, from a military standpoint).

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#154

This, to me, is the more disturbing part of the article: > In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information," the company said in a statement. "Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests. What is the point of transparency reports if they don't include major vectors of government surveillance? IMO such gag orders sh…

perhaps that democracy is not effective when the state organs are unelected bureacrats with guns

Would you prefer elected bureacrats with guns? That scares me more.

Perhaps we just go with rock solid transparency laws...

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#155

This, to me, is the more disturbing part of the article: > In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information," the company said in a statement. "Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests. What is the point of transparency reports if they don't include major vectors of government surveillance? IMO such gag orders sh…

> But gagging a company from disclosing untargeted or semi-targeted surveillance, especially if it involves American citizens, seems like it should be unconstitutional on free speech grounds.

I see you have not read the Patriot Act, an Orwellian double-speak of a title if there ever was one.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a pretty open and shut case of unconstitutional restriction of speech in the US. Especially when you consider the wording of the Apple communication saying that they can talk about it openly now that it's public knowledge.

Given the US has a 4th Amendment-free zone within 100 miles of all national borders in the name of national security, I expect the same justification and level of oversight here. https://www.aclu.org/documents/constitution-100-mile-border-...

This is a common misconception. The 100 mile radius does not waive 4th Amendment protection. A reasonable suspicion of immigration law violation is still required to detain, search and ultimately arrest individuals. To wit: please name a single instance of someone having their rights abused by this so-called "zone".

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#157

This, to me, is the more disturbing part of the article: > In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information," the company said in a statement. "Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests. What is the point of transparency reports if they don't include major vectors of government surveillance? IMO such gag orders sh…

perhaps that democracy is not effective when the state organs are unelected bureacrats with guns

history has shown that clumsy bureaucrats with slow erosion of rights is still superior to belligerents with guns in a mob

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

perhaps that democracy is not effective when the state organs are unelected bureacrats with guns

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. That's been a common charge against our vast unelected bureaucracy, most of whom hold qualified immunity. We're trillions of dollars in debt, maybe it's time to peel some of it back a little.

Downvotes are possibly because the unelected bureaucrats with guns are overseen by the elected Executive and Legislature.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#159
post #20

Yet another reason to be a happy GAPPSless LineageOS user

You're kidding yourself if you think three letter agencies don't have LOS users on a list and have capabilities to spy on them on demand with tailored access.

Maybe, but for sure avoiding stock Android and Google apps increases privacy a lot.

Re: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications

#160
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They mention metadata in the article. Imagine sending a message to a Signal account at time X, then asking Apple a list of all users that received a Signal notification at that specific time.

That doesn't make sense. I would expect Signal notifications to happen completely out-of-band with "normal" push notifications (e.g. NYT news alert). Otherwise that completely defeats the purpose of the service. Basically you're saying Apple/Google are MITM'ing Signal.

I'm not so familiar with Signal, but could you explain why you would expect Signal notifications to happen out-of-band with normal push notifications?

Assuming Signal sends push notifications of some sort, as most messaging services do, that would make them vulnerable to the metadata-level attacks described in this thread.

What kind of "out-of-band" are you thinking of that would mitigate this issue?

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