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UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

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Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#61

Post by narrator »

samwillis wrote: post #3

I find it amusing that WhatsApp and its e2ee is used as a common target for regulation by the government when their own ministers are using it to organise all sorts of shenanigans; illegal parties during lockdown, “anonymous” briefing of journalists, leaking compromising information about their peers. Not to mention that it always seems like the government is run via WhatsApp (probably need the e2ee for that!). Ultim…

Power deserves scrutiny. Politicians should have less privacy than the average person.

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#62

Post by Freak_NL »

pixelpoet wrote: post #47

The sheer audacity of claiming this is about protecting children, while politically connected people like Prince Andrew walk free, is just mindblowing. Wow, just wow.

Not sure if he'll walk free (that would be for a judge to judge), but this week was a bit of turning point:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/13/veterans-ask...

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#63

Post by [deleted] »

jevoten wrote: post #48
mattlondon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're already spying on near every street corner, after all. Citation needed.

One surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain, says CCTV survey - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveill... I'll leave it to you to estimate how many people live per street corner, on average.

[deleted]

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#64

Post by ashtonkem »

It honestly seems like the MPs involved still suffer the delusion that the U.K. is important enough to strong arm multinational companies into doing their will in order to gain access to the U.K. as a market. Genuinely not sure why they still think that, after their half assed (pun intended) attempt to ban pornography from their internet.

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#65

Post by foldr »

jevoten wrote: post #48
mattlondon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're already spying on near every street corner, after all. Citation needed.

One surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain, says CCTV survey - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveill... I'll leave it to you to estimate how many people live per street corner, on average.

For the UK government to be “spying on every street corner”, these cameras would have to be hooked up to some kind of central system. They’re not (and indeed most are privately owned).

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#66

Post by oliv__ »

The way the article breaks down exactly how the campaign is set to "persuade" the public feels so dystopian and cynical.

Launching a £500K media campaign (with public funds) under the cover up pretense that "UK’s biggest children’s charity and stakeholders have come together to urge social media companies to put children’s safety first" and then swaying people through "'sofa programmes' such as Loose Women and This Morning for broadcast".

If this isn't manufactured consent, I don't know what is. But seeing what happens behind the curtains really makes you wonder: what other "mainstream opinions" were created this way?

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#67

Post by ashtonkem »

Freak_NL wrote: post #62
pixelpoet wrote: post #47

The sheer audacity of claiming this is about protecting children, while politically connected people like Prince Andrew walk free, is just mindblowing. Wow, just wow.

Not sure if he'll walk free (that would be for a judge to judge), but this week was a bit of turning point: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/13/veterans-ask...

Even if he eventually gets in trouble, it’s hard to argue that the British state didn’t pull out the stops to protect their pedophile prince while wringing their hands about child abuse and online encryption. Oh, and Keir Starmer oversaw the prosecutor’s office who decided not to charge Jimmy Savile, who turned out to be a prolific (hundreds of accusers) child rapist.

So as far as child abuse is concerned, the call appears to be coming from inside the house.

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#68

Post by 7952 »

ben_w wrote: post #42
samwillis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they did have that capability do you think they would use it to take down and prosecute a small time drug dealer exposing what they are doing? Even exposing this capability to the Police by give them “secret” intelligence would inevitably result in the knowledge of their capabilities leaking. If they do have this capability it is only every going to be used for large scale organised crime, terrorism and state secu…

They do have this capacity. Given that the existence of this capacity is now public, it is my belief the UK is mainly limited by a combination of selective enforcement, lack of courts and lack of police (weirdly, given their preferred “tough on crime” rhetoric, U.K. courts and police are severely underfunded right now).

It's possible that they like surveillance because it is cheaper than traditional methods.

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#69

Post by salawat »

323 wrote: post #13
tjpnz wrote: post #11

Any insights as to why the big players are implementing E2E while ignoring P2P? Is this a control issue or purely related to technical challenges?

One big problem with P2P is that it reveals the IP address of the other party.

This is true of any network architecture that guarantees delivery of a message between terminii.

The legal conflation you're actually homing in on is we conflate technical terminals with their human users. We've been doing it for years, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Re: UK government plans publicity blitz against encrypted communications

#70

Post by jevoten »

foldr wrote: post #65
jevoten wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain, says CCTV survey - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveill... I'll leave it to you to estimate how many people live per street corner, on average.

For the UK government to be “spying on every street corner”, these cameras would have to be hooked up to some kind of central system. They’re not (and indeed most are privately owned).

Don't forget to count automated license plate readers, too: https://www.thenewspaper.com/news/48/4865.asp

And in the context of a crime investigation, all those private cameras will have their recordings looked at by the police - though I concede "spying" is too harsh a word for that.

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