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E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

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Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#181

Post by query_demotion »

Spooky23 wrote: post #165
hypeatei wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of our current privacy and liberty woes were exacerbated by 9/11. Can you imagine a Church Committee in 2026? Me neither. Three letter agencies have way too much power and they've shaped our culture+laws for the worse. Osama Bin Laden has done way more damage to American citizens' lives than he could've ever dreamed of.

By design. Just like the KGB and Putin's minions, Bin Laden correctly saw fault lines and weaknesses in the US an exploited them. He did what he did with a long-range context in mind. The "three letter agencies" were neutered in the 90s as part of the peace dividend which is why he was successful. The Russians used "active measures" with intelligence in the US 2016 among other times and Bin Laden chose terrorist viol…

This wasn't by design. Obama had options. He campaigned against mass surveillance but flip-flopped once in office, installing the very surveillance levers he criticized. “No more secrecy,” he said. “That is a commitment that I make to you.”[1] If his only option was to install these surveillance levers, then I guess American democracy is just a lost cause.

[1] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/obama-on-mass-gov...

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#182

Post by arunc »

blitzar wrote: post #20
arunc wrote: post #18

Wait, people trust communication via Instagram thinking they are secure?

Facebook were at both ends, the encryption was between the ends.

Ah, OK. I was never an Facebook/Instagram user, so thanks for explaining that.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#183

Post by fragmede »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #160
avallach wrote: post #93

Isn't this actually improving safety by openly admitting how things always were in practice? Any e2e encryption provided by the same entity who fully controls both the blackbox clients, and the server in between, is just a security theatre that they can selectively bypass anytime with very little risk of detection. Not really much better than simple client to server encryption. Truly safe e2e requires open source cli…

It's all about trust at the end of the day. And given that it was exposed that Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google etc all collaborated with the US government to provide surveillance (PRISM) by Edward Snowden, how we can trust them ever again?

Did they collaborate? Google freaked out when Snowden revealed what the NSA was doing.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#184

Post by fragmede »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #159
fsflover wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weak hardware can work quite well with optimized and non-bloated software (which doesn't constantly phone home). For example, maps and Youtube work smoothly on Pinephone with SXMo. See also: https://puri.sm/posts/the-danger-of-focusing-on-specs/ .

I hope so, but I just don't understand what exactly causes such massive price difference. Is it because this kind of phones are a very niche product so they can't benefit from the economy of scale? Maybe android phone manufacturers can get better deals from chip manufacturers because they buy chips in large quantities?

Yes exactly that. The weak hardware at those prices are the best they can afford. The economy of scale that they can afford let's them charge that little for flagship phone and still makes money. People won't put their money where their mouths are, we're all too cheap to pay what things are really worth.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#185

Post by Archonical »

paxys wrote: post #174

Everyone is hypothesizing government backdoors and whatever else but to me there's a simpler and more obvious reason - AI. Companies started pushing E2EE a few years ago because users' private messaging data used to be a liability. Now that the data can be fed into LLMs for training and inference its value has gone up significantly , and the privacy and security tradeoffs are suddenly worthwhile. PMs across the indus…

It's around the same time they announced their Applied AI org under Boz, which is responsible for data for Avocado/Mango/Watermelon training now. The timing certainly doesn't help.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#186

Post by dhblumenfeld1 »

avallach wrote: post #93

Isn't this actually improving safety by openly admitting how things always were in practice? Any e2e encryption provided by the same entity who fully controls both the blackbox clients, and the server in between, is just a security theatre that they can selectively bypass anytime with very little risk of detection. Not really much better than simple client to server encryption. Truly safe e2e requires open source cli…

wouldn't signal fall under this category (same entity control the client and server in between) but they have no way of peaking inside any envelopes?

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#187

Post by quectophoton »

methuselah_in wrote: post #145

It feels like it's time to move to lemon writing over paper on normal post. Only way you can no talk freely.

Except instead of sending through post offices, it'd probably be through "runners" like on Mirror's Edge.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#188

Post by browsingonly »

iamthejuan wrote: post #153
avallach wrote: post #93

Isn't this actually improving safety by openly admitting how things always were in practice? Any e2e encryption provided by the same entity who fully controls both the blackbox clients, and the server in between, is just a security theatre that they can selectively bypass anytime with very little risk of detection. Not really much better than simple client to server encryption. Truly safe e2e requires open source cli…

This happened to my girlfriend and me twice on Messenger. On two consecutive nights, we heard a male voice with an American accent speaking as if he were talking to someone else, almost like they were conducting some kind of operation. It seemed as though he suddenly realized that we could hear him, after which the voice abruptly disappeared. The following night, it happened again, but this time the voice sounded lik…

I work on products that feature live monitoring capabilities. There's no connection to the monitoring side's microphone (or camera) — why would there be? I'm not sure why there would be for their products.

Whatever the cause, it sure sounds like it was a strange and unnerving experience.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#189

Post by mpalmer »

gmerc wrote: post #21
garbawarb wrote: post #3

When Meta starting introducing E2E messaging it was a huge push. I wonder why they're doing away with it.

It was for plausible deniability because of regulatory scrutiny. Regulator's dead now, so now there's no downside and only upsides to spying on your users.

> no downside

That is not the view their legal department takes, I guarantee it. Congress ain't gonna keep its composition indefinitely.

Re: E2E encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May

#190

Post by exe34 »

iamthejuan wrote: post #153
avallach wrote: post #93

Isn't this actually improving safety by openly admitting how things always were in practice? Any e2e encryption provided by the same entity who fully controls both the blackbox clients, and the server in between, is just a security theatre that they can selectively bypass anytime with very little risk of detection. Not really much better than simple client to server encryption. Truly safe e2e requires open source cli…

This happened to my girlfriend and me twice on Messenger. On two consecutive nights, we heard a male voice with an American accent speaking as if he were talking to someone else, almost like they were conducting some kind of operation. It seemed as though he suddenly realized that we could hear him, after which the voice abruptly disappeared. The following night, it happened again, but this time the voice sounded lik…

did you check your carbon monoxide alarm batteries?
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