France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone • Hacker News Board

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#161

Post by voytec » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

tbrock wrote: post #155

freedomben wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments regularly have a steady flow of zero days to use, but once it's used it's "burned" so it's not something they throw around willy nilly. I would guess they are going to force manufacturers to play ball, and I would gues that the manufacturers will.

Or the manufacturers will just not sell their phones in France. Ultimately it’s the French citizens that will miss out.

My guess is that France will soon have followers in form of other EU states.

Both left and right are contesting who can be more authoritarian these days.

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#162

Post by jb1991 » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

Awelton wrote: post #126

They could at least have the decency to just secretly do it and then pretend like they aren't, like our government does. This is why physical switches and removable batteries are the only way forward.

what is "our" government? this site is worldwide..

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#163

Post by lost_tourist » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

meerita wrote: post #27

I think it's unpracticable unless they install a backdoor on each phone.

I doubt it, they can install any software they want on most people's phones. Sure in the future they can add supplemental hardware but it is very possible to do this measure currently on existing phones, unless you've rooted yours and install an alternative OS

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#164

Post by djfm » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

Awelton wrote: post #126

They could at least have the decency to just secretly do it and then pretend like they aren't, like our government does. This is why physical switches and removable batteries are the only way forward.

they have no doubt been doing it, they're just using the panic of a brainwashed population thinking they're on the brink of Islamic revolution to normalize it

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#165

Post by mdp2021 » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

le_pet wrote: post #51

That sounds very reasonable, similar to installing a bugging device in the house of a suspect, to gather more evidence. The neat thing about mobile phones is that such a bugging capability comes built-in. The police should certainly be allowed to use this in the course of investigative duties.

It opens a number of problems, such as suggesting legitimacy of having backdoors that one could open """in exceptional cases""". The first thing that you should think when somebody is saying "let us activate camera and microphone" is how.

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#166

Post by taoufix » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

Don't forget the call to block social media sites during riots by the Frnace's president [1]

[0]: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230705-macron-s-call-to...

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#167

Post by logifail » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

bagels wrote: post #127

dismalpedigree wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faraday bags are not effective against all frequencies. Specifically the 5G frequencies are known to be very difficult to block with a cage ( but do have relatively short ranges)

It also is ineffective at blocking audio which can be shipped out as soon as it comes out of the bag.

> It also is ineffective at blocking audio

If you turn your phone off and immediately put it in a Faraday bag, how would it receive a remote command to turn on and start recording audio?

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#168

Post by hinata08 » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

ericd wrote: post #70

kemayo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the French Revolution was very-shortly-followed by the Terror, so we can hardly present this as a simple slow decline from a golden age.

And very shortly thereafter, an emperor :-)

the emperor did an empire on behalf of the republic, and to fight off the british to save the republic over monarchy

these times were ironic and still up to your own understanding, because nobody got what really happened then

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#169

Post by Ycdr4thfdd » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

jb1991 wrote: post #162

Awelton wrote: post #126

They could at least have the decency to just secretly do it and then pretend like they aren't, like our government does. This is why physical switches and removable batteries are the only way forward.

what is "our" government? this site is worldwide..

Y Combinator is an American company and the website is hosted in the US.

Re: France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone

#170

Post by lost_tourist » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

Animatronio wrote: post #38

Meanwhile China is bad.

Both are bad, the French aren't currently forcibly sterilizing, enslaving, and genociding a culture like the Chinese are doing with Uyghers, however. So there are different levels of bad.