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Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

theguardian.com

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Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#301

Post by lelanthran »

eviks wrote: post #130
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are major differences between the Trump 1.0 and 2.0 administrations. In the Trump 1.0 administration, many of the most important officials were very competent men. One example would be then-Attorney General William Barr. Barr is contemptible, yes, but smart AF. When Barr’s DOJ released a redacted version of the Mueller Report, they printed the whole thing, made their redactions with actual ink, and then re-sca…

> but smart AF. When Barr’s DOJ released a redacted version of the Mueller Report, they printed the whole thing, made their redactions with actual ink, and then re-scanned every page to generate a new PDF with absolutely no digital trace of the original PDF file. This is a dumb way of doing that, exactly what "stupid" people do when their are somewhat aware of the limits of their competence or only as smart as the te…

> This is a dumb way of doing that, exactly what "stupid" people do when their are somewhat aware of the limits of their competence or only as smart as the tech they grew up with.

No, this is an example of someone understanding the limits of the people they delegate to, and putting in a process so that delegation to even a very dumb person still has successful outcomes.

"Smart" people like to believe that knowing enough minutiae is enough to result in a successful outcome.

Actual smart people know that the process is more important than the minutiae, and proceed accordingly.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#302

Post by hexfish »

KnuthIsGod wrote: post #300

Print on paper. Physically cut out the pieces you want to send to remove. Scan. Still suspect that someone can undo this from data may have been accidentally steaganographed across non-deleted parts of the image.

Not sure but that might actually add your printer's unique dots to the scanned image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#303

Post by xnorswap »

poglet wrote: post #199
gjm11 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? I can't find any trace of any book by Richard Dawkins with a title much like that, and that doesn't seem like a very on-brand sort of cover pic for a book by him, and an image search for "Richard Dawkins book cover" doesn't turn up anything like it.

Most likely "I Am Me, I Am Free: The Robot's Guide to Freedom. - David Icke"

Confusing David "The monarchy are secretly lizards" Icke with Dawkins is astonishing.

More "info": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory#Da...

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#304

Post by fodkodrasz »

KnuthIsGod wrote: post #300

Print on paper. Physically cut out the pieces you want to send to remove. Scan. Still suspect that someone can undo this from data may have been accidentally steaganographed across non-deleted parts of the image.

Microdots may leak your identity this way (though I guess a really high resolution scan is needed for that)

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#305

Post by baby »

yetihehe wrote: post #291
agentifysh wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's absolutely bewildering how ridiculous everything has been so far in terms of competence and this really takes the cherry on the top near Christmas too. how much lower can they go ?!

USA is still very high, so they can go much much lower, but I think they might go to some still lower places, finding them where we didn't even know such places could exist. Some ideas: - Leave NATO - Start openly supporting Russia and North Korea - Arrest whole International Criminal Court - Preventively invade China

I'm convinced slavery will be reintroduced before 2028

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#306

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

cmarschner wrote: post #294
heavyset_go wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to believe this is malicious compliance.

Since hundreds of people were involved the most likely explanation is incompetence

Having lots of people involved means that it's more likely to be malicious compliance or deniable sabotage. It only needs one person who disagrees with the redactions to start doing things that they know will allow info to leak.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#307

Post by RamRodification »

GistNoesis wrote: post #278
OneMorePerson wrote: post #231

It's funny seeing this play out because in my personal life anytime I'm sharing a sensitive document where someone needs to see part of it but I don't want them to see the rest that's not relevant, I'll first block out/redact the text I don't want them to see (covering it, using a redacting highlighter thing, etc.), and then I'll screenshot the page and make that image a PDF. I always felt paranoid (without any real…

If it's not done properly, and you happen at any point in the chain to put black blocks on a compressed image (and PDF do compress internal images), you are leaking some bits of information in the shadow casted by the compression algorithm : (Self-plug : https://github.com/unrealwill/jpguncrop )

I was thinking I understand what's going on but then I came to the image showing the diff and I don't understand at all how that diff can unredact anything.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#308

Post by lukan »

culi wrote: post #260
Dusseldorf wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colleagues whose full time job is doing this sort of thing for various bits of the government have told me this is exactly the case here. People from all over the government have been deputized to redact these documents with little or no prior training.

If there's that many people who have access to these files, I'm shocked there hasn't been leaks until this point.

If loyalty is the metric and not competence they were selected for ..

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#309

Post by baby »

wolpoli wrote: post #34
nickpinkston wrote: post #31

I wonder if any of this is a conscious act of resistance vs. just incompetence. And yes, I've heard of Hanlon's Razor haha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Black square vs redaction tool difference is well known if someone's job involves redacting PDF or just working with PDF. It's most likely that additional staffs were pulled in and weren't given enough training.

My understanding is that many people were fired and replaced by loyalists at the FBI. I think there are a lot of incompetent people working there right now.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#310

Post by refurb »

culi wrote: post #257
refurb wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also don’t assume the mistake wasn’t intentional.

This was my initial reaction to this news. I mean think about it The Trump team knows that nobody is gonna buy whatever they put out as being the full story. Isn't this just the perfect way to make people feel like they got something they weren't supposed to see? They can increase trust in the output without having to increase trust in the source of it And as far as I've heard there hasn't been anything "unredacted"…

That was my thought. Just happen to leak some info for people you are interested in hurting but claim it was an accident.

And in terms of no big news in “unredacted”, it’s likely names that don’t mean anything to the average voter but damaging material for K Street.

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