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How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

evilsocket.net

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Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#61

Post by throwaway-hn123 »

Olscore wrote: post #56
throwaway-hn123 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the person using a throwaway account says that your statement is patently false. And as you attacked the only thing you could attack, I assume you know that as well, "buddy"!

Nice astro-turfing in your comment history. Remember my name buddy, I won't remember yours.

> Remember my name buddy, I won't remember yours.

Sure, I will remember your name, Olsco. My name isn't hard to remember - it's Away; Throw Away.

> Nice astro-turfing in your comment history

Do you not even know what astroturfing is? Keep attacking my HN handle - just shows that you know your statement was patently, absurdly and almost hilariously false.

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#62

Post by Ayaz »

kejaed wrote: post #44
throwawayosiu1 wrote: post #33

I lived in UAE for 10 years. All I can say is...it's not a "bad" place if: 1) you are working as a direct hire for any of the govt companies (Adnoc, Etisalat, etc.). 2) if not, you are contracted directly by those companies 3) if you are on contract and your visa's sponsor is good (won't take your passport on arrival, won't create issues when you need to leave, etc.) 4) If you keep your head down basically - go to wo…

Question: if "using encrypted chatting applications" is banned, can on use iMessage?

iOS devices sold in UAE don't have iMessage and FaceTime support. I can't remember whether I was able to use iMessage the last time I was there with an iPhone I purchased elsewhere.

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#63

Post by angry_octet »

evilsocket wrote: post #8
erlehmann_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just never – ever – visit UAE again.

ahaha of course not! :D

Or any of the GCC states.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/26/gcc-joint-security-agree...

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#64

Post by angry_octet »

return0 wrote: post #23

Look Dubai is all for the biggest and largest, so if they are getting serious about surveillance, you can bet they ll want to boast about it. Also of note is that dubai is ~85% immigrants, which i think it the object of their surveillance.

Heck no, it's the local nationals they care about:

The UAE's bizarre, political trial of 94 activists

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/06/uae-tri...

They seem to have everyone pretty cowed. They treat the guest workers like dirt, but don't seem to be concerned about a slave revolt.

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#65

Post by throwawayosiu1 »

PostOnce wrote: post #55
throwawayosiu1 wrote: post #33

I lived in UAE for 10 years. All I can say is...it's not a "bad" place if: 1) you are working as a direct hire for any of the govt companies (Adnoc, Etisalat, etc.). 2) if not, you are contracted directly by those companies 3) if you are on contract and your visa's sponsor is good (won't take your passport on arrival, won't create issues when you need to leave, etc.) 4) If you keep your head down basically - go to wo…

"it's not that bad if your sponsor doesn't steal your passport" Your employer stealing your passport is something that generally only happens in a hellhole?

Most decent companies there, generally don't do that. However, there are always exceptions.

Furthermore, this issue generally plagues the contractor companies (those that provide workers to bigger govt companies - who don't really care and use contractors to get around this in the first place)

Quite a lot of private companies do the same as well.

Very recently (just 6 months back), a friend of mine, got an offer from an import/export company in UAE. They had a few interviews over the phone and agreed upon the everything (including salary, accommodations and so on..)

Once my friend (a Canadian citzien) landed in UAE, the company took his passport and then demanded that he sign a different contract (reduced salary, longer period, etc.) and refused to hand over his password till he signed it. He had to threaten to visit the Embassy, for them to hand it back to him. However, if he was a citizen of some 3rd world country like India, Pakistan or anywhere from Asia, or even some European countries - he'd not have a choice but to sign the new contract.

Furthermore, when he tried to leave - as he was no longer interested in working for the company, they refused to pay for his flight back as well.

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#66

Post by whyever »

erlehmann_ wrote: post #34
evilsocket wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really sure who you're talking to ... they asked me to use Signal, honestly I didn't really care ...

Signal is bad for other reasons, too, like creating a lock-in effect and being hostile to clients that remove the dependency on Google Play Services: http://news.dieweltistgarnichtso.net/posts/signal-lock-in.ht...

You could also say that Signal is good because they realized the shortcomings of federation and want to sign their binaries themselves.

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#67

Post by chinathrow »

Another brilliant example on why people should shun travelling to and most notably _through_ these countries. The UAE is not a safe place to travel through at all. As others have said, the laws are different.

People have been detained for reasons beyond imagination.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-woman-faces-insult-charge-unit...

http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/general/jailed-and-fined-for-no...

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/561528/British-plane-spo...

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#68

Post by onetwotree »

throwawayosiu1 wrote: post #33

I lived in UAE for 10 years. All I can say is...it's not a "bad" place if: 1) you are working as a direct hire for any of the govt companies (Adnoc, Etisalat, etc.). 2) if not, you are contracted directly by those companies 3) if you are on contract and your visa's sponsor is good (won't take your passport on arrival, won't create issues when you need to leave, etc.) 4) If you keep your head down basically - go to wo…

So...sounds like a hellhole? That might be the point of your comment...sarcasm is hard on the interwebs.

I think OPs point is that while they might have treated OP like gold, he couldn't conscious taking part in the horrifying things they do to their own people, to say nothing of migrant workers (taking passports as a means of control).

Re: How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People

#69

Post by lazyant »

cup wrote: post #10
erlehmann_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just never – ever – visit UAE again.

I like the UAE. As long as you don't break their laws the experience is fine. To be honest, I'm more frightened of going to America as a non-white person where even obeying the laws can result in death. Edit: If you disagree with my post please add to the conversation rather than just down-voting.

"As long as you don't break the law you are fine" this is the excuse that dictatorship apologists give "well, if you behaved and didn't demonstrate and didn't join a left/right party you were fine under Pinochet/Ceaucescu"
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