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Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

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Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you've got a 10 new joiners per week at your high-turnover packing factory, and a sign outside the admin office that says "Paychecks are distributed bi-weekly". Maybe typically 5 of them have had a job before in the area, 3 have had a job elsewhere and 2 have never had a job. Not all of them have the same level of education. How many will misunderstand your sign? Might any of those misunderstandings about money c…

I mean are you talking about jobs meant for those with some kind of college education, or are you talking about jobs aimed at (say) middle-school drop-outs? For the latter, I can see it, but for the former it's almost insulting to try to simplify things too much just in case the employee doesn't have common sense that they will need on the job anyway...

I was using a low-income example to make the point clear, but the same principle applies to everyone.

By assuming a high-education environment you might nudge down the number of misunderstandings. You'll nudge it further if you assume English is everyone's first language. [Note that these assumptions are probably discriminatory]

You'll nudge it further if you assume that nobody in your working environment is dylsexic, or has any other linguistic impairment. [This assumption is certainly discriminatory]

You'll nudge it further if you assume that everyone is operating at 100% all the time... which is just plain untrue, as nicely summed up by this slide from Microsoft's Inclusive Design reference: https://marcysutton.github.io/mobile-a11y/img/injury.png

While you might be insulted by language that insufficiently feeds your desire to feel good about your intelligence, your right to not be insulted is a lower priority than communicating important information clearly.

Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Well, I think Amazon doesn't really care and this shows its lack of care. 2) I'm only pleased if it works. I suspect in this environment it is going to flop and is largely for PR.

Amazon did build the government its own AWS cloud. Perhaps they don't want to bite the hand of such a large customer?

Eventually, if it isn't already, this will be one of those "you own the bank" situations. Too much government stuff relies on AWS to imagine AWS just getting cut out. If Obama decided today to fire AWS, how long would that take?

Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#63

Throwaway because I am currently under investigation. Apple inadvertently notified me that had subpoena'd my iCloud backups. I suspect that they violated the gag order in error. As a result they expedited their physical warrant and raided me 2 days later. As someone targeted by a federal investigation, it is clear that the government will vacuum up as much information as possible without my knowledge. Hopefully Micro…

Do you know why you are being investigated?

Are you a Fed? Why would you ask a question that could only hurt GP?

Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#65
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In every other way they are not like people. They are neither mortal nor corporeal (in the sense that a human body can be imprisoned or damaged). They can feel no emotion and are not subject to disease. This is important because humans are limited in myriad ways that corporations aren't and by giving corporations human rights the balance of power between actual humans and corporations tilts to the latter. For example…

Last one I could find was in California in 1976.

This should certainly be a more common occurrence.

Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why you are being investigated?

Are you a Fed? Why would you ask a question that could only hurt GP?

I'm not a Fed but I'm also interested.

It could be anything - from something insidiously evil or it could be something like they're a journalist.

Re: Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches

#68
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Log information would be extremely useful toward matching a person up with a crime. As opposed to the information that the ISPs are already offering? Sorry, but your underlying networks are already in collusion with the feds. Were they not, the telemetry might provide signals that wouldn't be more easily obtained elsewhere. But it's also worth noting that the telemetry for 'apps installed' is just your license list…

>As opposed to the information that the ISPs are already offering? Log information can be much more revealing if you are communicating only via encrypted protocols or Tor. We don't know for sure what exactly MS is transmitting in their logs but we do know quite well what traces we leave (or leave not) behind via our ISP. And that's definitely much less than what our machine can reveal via (encrypted) telemetry.

Three thoughts here.

1. We really don't know the extent of telemetry collected via our ISPs, do we? Unless application authors go to the trouble of specific certificate or signatory cert pinning, it's not terribly challenging for certain classes of attackera to enter that connection.

2. Wouldn't substantial data in Tor logs be a bug with your Tor client anyways? I've never seen a Tor client ship in a logging debug mode. But I haven't taken Tor terribly seriously for years. Did they start doing it wrong?

3. The contents of the data that is being sent to Microsoft is entirely knowable. I'm waiting for a security researcher to just do it. I suspect most of what we see is something along the lines of standard app telemetry for core apps.

The amount of FUD that has been brought to bear against MS for this practice is pretty unsurprising given the scroogled campaigns, but it's funny to see a bunch of 3rd parties buy into it while posting from Macs that do the same thing.

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