Earlier quoted context omitted.
Answering my own question - the original gist was posted in March 2017.
OK thanks, we'll add that.
The gist contains a 2018 update section at the bottom...
iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
41–50 of 66 posts
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know the process list is accurate for certain? The point is, there’s potentially back doors in everything, including the C compiler that built your Linux kernel.
We've all read reflections on trusting trust... still my point stands, it's hard to argue that Linux is not lighter than the mainstream OSes.
It can be lighter but what does that mean in practical terms if the cost of maintenance is monumental? I think with even just the barest bones practical computer with wifi + with email + browser + compiler and their dependencies is well beyond the scope of what one person is able to audit. You'd need a team of at least 20-30 individuals before that starts making sense.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#43I am no connaisseur , just a guy who cares about privacy (in general and his in particular) who also happens to own an iPhone and wants to buy a Mac. This seems pretty troubling, as I as well as many I suppose, trust Apple and think that they're one of the good guys. I know it's cliché but I think this is the part where "[..] live long enough to see yourself become the villain." applies. The more important question,…
What do you do? Windows world is worse. So is Android generally. Use Linux? How do you trust that? QubesOS? Pen and paper? If you walk outside, you’re on camera. Living off grid with no phone or computer seals the deal, but not very practical. I’m all about security and privacy, but everything is on balance with practically. If a three digit govt agency wants to find you, they have so many other ways than Apple.
This is a false dilemma. If you walk outside and must necessarily put up with shopkeepers rights to record their premises we don't in turn invite people to publicly accessible webcams in our bedrooms/bathrooms.
I'd say you use as much privacy respecting hardware/software as is feasible given your present use case and circumstances and progressively look to improve this situation funneling your money towards people and projects that respect you and your privacy in order to encourage people to build the things you need.
If you already have expensive hardware that doesn't work with open source software I don't think it terribly reasonable to suppose you throw it in the trash for example.
Just buy something better next go round.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not trust Linux? No activation, full control over all the processes. Seems like a good solution for people who "care".
It's good in theory but in practice you'd need to spend a lot of time and money doing deep audits yourself, both hardware and software. That just really isn't a worthwhile investment for the vast, vast, majority of people. At the end of the day it all still boils down to trust based on reputation, incentives and oversight. Openness is important but no panacea.
Its silly to advice against reasonable actions like switching to an OS that respects your privacy based on unreasonable standards that aren't met presently anyway.
Don't bother leaving that disease ridden hag covered in boils you can't possibly invest the resources to sequence the full genome of this clean looking young lady over here it all comes down to trust amirite.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've all read reflections on trusting trust... still my point stands, it's hard to argue that Linux is not lighter than the mainstream OSes.
It can be lighter but what does that mean in practical terms if the cost of maintenance is monumental? I think with even just the barest bones practical computer with wifi + with email + browser + compiler and their dependencies is well beyond the scope of what one person is able to audit. You'd need a team of at least 20-30 individuals before that starts making sense.
If only it was possible for massive armies of people to inspect source code for possible defects or backdoors?
Further what if it happened we were unsatisfied with this we could all collectively hire more people to audit the software stacks we rely on in order of priority instead of expecting each person to hire dozens to vet the software they are presently running.
Further if only even if we can't ever arrive at 100% surety we can get closer and closer to satisfaction.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#46Its encouraging to be reminded that still not everyone who uses Apple hardware runs MacOS exclusively.
http://www.sacrideo.us/openbsd-on-macbook/
However I have not heard any reports of anyone running an alternative OS on iPhone or iPad hardware.
With every passing year I continue to think it would be interesting to observe how users would choose if Apple hardware and Apple software were sold separately.
Would all users choose Apple software?
Expecting to take a little karma subtraction from the thought police for daring to entertain such a nonpermissible idea. Par for the course here and well worth it.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#47“On iOS, there is no full-disk or full-volume encryption, only varying levels of file-based encryption...” I don't understand this claim. iOS had full disk encryption starting with iOS 3.0, in 2010. Or at least Apple (and other security experts) says it does: https://darthnull.org/security/2014/10/06/ios-encryption/ Am I missing something here?
You're not missing something. The author doesn't seem to understand how iOS's disk encryption works. It's not "full disk encryption" in that the full disk is not encrypted with one key. However, every single file on the disk is encrypted, with separate keys, and the various levels of security (e.g. "accessible always", "accessible when unlocked", etc) are managed by storing these keys in different key bags whose own…
Yep. And this layered encryption is great because it allows — for example — your phone to boot up before you enter a passphrase.
Making this technology more convenient is just as important for making people secure as the algorithms themselves, because otherwise, almost no one will use them (PGP-encrypted email being the classic example).
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#48> Apple Activation servers are accessed via Akamai, which means sensitive data may be cached by Akamai and its’ peering partners' which includes many global ISPs and IXPs
Wouldn't this be devastating to about 10000 other businesses as well?
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#49> Especially since iOS10, and the “differential privacy” (dprivacyd) concept, which Apple pushed, and which this author feels essentially boils down to “let’s collect even more data without giving a real reason and spin it as a privacy improvement because we remove certain metadata, after all none of our users understand or care anyway”
This is too misleading and dismissive. Differential privacy collection requires that the device will send back data which doesn't contain enough information to tell anything significant about the individual, but does allow for population-level statistics to be computed from many samples (eg. the old private-survey trick of flip a coin and answer truthfully if it's heads or randomly if it's tails). If they're collecting more data with this system, then it's supposed to mean that they don't know more about you.
Almost all tech companies collect extensive usage data; Apple seems to have made a genuine and rare attempt to improve the privacy of their users (admittedly without damaging their ability to make informed product decisions). Given the popularity of AI tech and the huge amounts of data it requires, systems like this are probably the only plausible way to improve user privacy without getting left-behind in the AI and product-development race.
Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy
#50Its encouraging to be reminded that still not everyone who uses Apple hardware runs MacOS exclusively. https://sivers.org/openbsd http://www.sacrideo.us/openbsd-on-macbook/ However I have not heard any reports of anyone running an alternative OS on iPhone or iPad hardware. With every passing year I continue to think it would be interesting to observe how users would choose if Apple hardware and Apple software were so…
I'm almost certain that your comment wouldn't be greyed out if you hadn't added that last paragraph.