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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

#321

Post by 9dev »

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…

In practical terms, a more convenient way to achieve this is just printing the document to a PDF, which rasterises the visible layer into what the printer would see. Most pdf tools support this.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#322

Post by OtherShrezzing »

RamRodification wrote: post #307
GistNoesis wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not that you can unredact them from scratch (you could never get the blue circle back from this software). It's that you can tell which of the redacted images is which of the origin images. Investigative teams often find themselves in a situation where they have all four images, but need to work out which redacted files are which of the origins. Take for example, where headed paper is otherwise entirely redacted.

So with this technique, you can definitively say "Redacted-file-A is definitely a redacted version of Origin-file-A". Super useful for identifying forgeries in a stack of otherwise legitimate files.

Also good for for saying "the date on origin-file-B is 1993, and the file you've presented as evidence is provable as origin-file-b, so you definitely know of [whatever event] in 1993".

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#323

Post by immibis »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #304
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)

It's no problem if they leak the fact that an FBI office printer was used to print the documents the FBI released.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#324

Post by kergonath »

ourmandave wrote: post #95
andsoitis wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you truly believe the US is currently a dictatorship?

The pendulum swings. It always does. And all the powers SCOTUS gave the executive branch will eventually be in the hands of the Loyal Opposition. If it swings as far back you might even see universal health care, sane gun laws, fair wages, campaign finance reform, reproductive freedom, science based policy making, reigning in billionaires, etc.

> The pendulum swings. It always does. And all the powers SCOTUS gave the executive branch will eventually be in the hands of the Loyal Opposition.

That sounds reinsuring, but it is completely false. The idea that the pendulum swings is just regression to the mean: sure, after a terrible president, the next one is likely to be less terrible. But there is nothing that implies that after a far-right regime will come a far-left one. In fact, if you look at History in various countries around the world, this seems very unlikely.

> If it swings as far back you might even see universal health care, sane gun laws, fair wages, campaign finance reform, reproductive freedom, science based policy making, reigning in billionaires, etc.

Don’t count on it. In all likelihood it will regress to the centre. The American culture hasn’t changed that much and American leftists did not suddenly become competent at getting popular support.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#325

Post by immibis »

reed1234 wrote: post #276
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I open your laptop and guess your password then that counts as hacking you in both legal and security terms You don't need to do some sophisticated thing for it to be considered hacking

But copying and pasting text of publicly released documents is not illegal. Accessing someone’s computer is illegal. While maybe it could fall under the umbrella of hacking in some general way, articles, and especially titles, should be more precise.

That actually is illegal in some circumstances, for example if the document is protected by copyright.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#327

Post by rurban »

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

Reintroduce witch burning.

Reintroduce death penalties on public squares.

Taking Greenland and Venezuela is given, as they took most of Latin America already. Just the new Mexican president looks like the next thorn in their eyes. Too competent, too social, too anti-corruption.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#328

Post by PeterStuer »

userbinator wrote: post #262
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…

I'll just send an image and not bother with a PDF. (Note there's also other metadata in a PDF, which you may not want your recipient to know either.)

There's also metadata in the image files. What specifically would be sensitive in the pdf with screenshots metadata that is also not present in the sceenshot image metadata?

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#329

Post by eviks »

lelanthran wrote: post #301
eviks wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 eno…

> 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

Oh, man, is he the only smart person in the whole department of >100k employees and an >x contractors??? What other fantasy do you need to believe in to excuse the flaws? Also, if he's so smart why didn't he, you know, hire someone smart for the job?

> even a very dumb person still has successful

Except it's easier to make mistakes following his process for both smart and dumb people, not be successful!

> Actual smart people know that the process is more important

So he's not actually smart according to your own definition because the process he has set up was bad, so he apparently did not know it was important to set it up better?

> important than the minutiae

Demanding only paper redactions is that minutiae.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#330

Post by PeterStuer »

baby wrote: post #305
yetihehe wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not a slave if you just rent them from the cartels. /s
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