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My Priorities for the Next Four Years

schneier.com

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Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#81

Post by matt4077 »

ipunchghosts wrote: post #74
scblock wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment makes zero sense.

I will restate my point another way and hopefully it will make sense. The fact that BS was surprised that Trump got elected means in some sense he is not tuned to the issues right in front of him. Scott Adams would say he is living in another reality than half of america (half of america voted for trump). Security is all about prediction. You are most secure when you can predict everyone's movements. Regarding the US…

Well, I understood you the first time, and it's not getting better.

Scott Amundsen would say "Nate Silver gave Trump a 30% chance, 30% chances sometimes happen (about 30% of the time), and you and Scott Adams are trying to extrapolate a single point of data into a Grand Unifying Theory of why you're awesome and how liberals live in la-la-fantasy-land."

The idea that some sort of personal connection to a different group of voters allows you to better predict election results than the combined effort of dozens of polling firms calling hundreds of thousands of people is laughable on it's face.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#82

Post by dang »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #64
tptacek wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody on HN is clueful about every subject that comes up on HN. You're not expected to be able to comment intelligently on every story here. However, if you have no substantive contribution to make about a thread --- for instance, because it's about the most famous living cryptographer and you no exposure to cryptography or Internet security --- you are expected not to comment at all . As it stands, you've derailed…

I don't have any problem with you personally, but it's not your job to shut down a thread because you disagree with the author.

Please don't take this thread any further off topic.

A substantive debate about variance or the lack of it in the surveillance policies of successive administrations is on-topic in a thread about surveillance. But arguing about whether you should or shouldn't know who Schneier is, and some of these other things you've posted, are way out in the weeds.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#83

Post by throwaway291289 »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #64
tptacek wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody on HN is clueful about every subject that comes up on HN. You're not expected to be able to comment intelligently on every story here. However, if you have no substantive contribution to make about a thread --- for instance, because it's about the most famous living cryptographer and you no exposure to cryptography or Internet security --- you are expected not to comment at all . As it stands, you've derailed…

I don't have any problem with you personally, but it's not your job to shut down a thread because you disagree with the author.

You simply criticized the wrong person. Schneier has already fought against the Clipper chip as far as I remember.

I agree that we don't know yet whether surveillance will be worse under Trump than under Obama/Clinton.

Trump likes to troll and is a bit unpredictable. He has flamed the CIA and apparently invites Musk (green energy).

For all we know Schneier will be invited to the transition team next week.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#84

Post by matt4077 »

potatolicious wrote: post #80
kijin wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO there are only two companies in the world right now that could possibly compete against Google and Facebook on that kind of scale but with a different, more privacy-respecting business model. Unfortunately, the one in Cupertino only takes a lukewarm stance on privacy despite being in an excellent position to make it a distinguishing feature of their platform; and the one in Redmond with its always-calling-home op…

> "the one in Cupertino only takes a lukewarm stance on privacy" Genuinely curious - but how so? My observation of Apple so far is that they've taken a remarkably strong privacy stance. Not maintaining logs of iMessage, keeping nearly all personal data on-device, ensuring analytics do not leak personal data, going above and beyond to ensure their customers' devices are strongly encrypted (and exceptionally difficult…

Indeed. They stared down the FBI with engineers threatening to quit and/or go to jail rather than compromising their users' phones. That had the enormous risk of making them unpalatable to the conservative half of the nation.

Compare to yahoo, where they apparently handed out data to anyone asking, and not a single person considered it m0re important than their paycheck.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#85

Post by dang »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #37

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul. I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his. What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by soc…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13184727 and marked it off-topic.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#86

Post by matt4077 »

suls wrote: post #53
idlewords wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think employee revolt is a much more promising avenue of attack than market revolt. Many of the people working at Google and Facebook are deeply uneasy about what the data they've collected can be used for. Watching their CEO (or COO) march meekly into Trump tower does not alleviate those anxieties.

I suppose however it is hard to revolt against the hand that feeds you more than 2x market rate. "Everyone has their price" sort of thing ..

That just highlights you moral bankruptcy if you cooperate with these practices: these people are employable like no one else, and they should have the ability to safe up a very nice cushions rather quickly.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#87

Post by kijin »

potatolicious wrote: post #80
kijin wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO there are only two companies in the world right now that could possibly compete against Google and Facebook on that kind of scale but with a different, more privacy-respecting business model. Unfortunately, the one in Cupertino only takes a lukewarm stance on privacy despite being in an excellent position to make it a distinguishing feature of their platform; and the one in Redmond with its always-calling-home op…

> "the one in Cupertino only takes a lukewarm stance on privacy" Genuinely curious - but how so? My observation of Apple so far is that they've taken a remarkably strong privacy stance. Not maintaining logs of iMessage, keeping nearly all personal data on-device, ensuring analytics do not leak personal data, going above and beyond to ensure their customers' devices are strongly encrypted (and exceptionally difficult…

Yes, they do talk about privacy, and I respect them for taking a stance when the FBI asked them to decrypt a phone.

But talking to nerds is not enough. Apple could do so much more than that. Their marketing department could make privacy a major conversation point for ordinary people who are looking for a new phone or tablet. Like, make the Apple brand synonymous with peace of mind. Drill that into every consumer's subconsciousness. Actually hurt Google's bottom line where it hurts them the most, because they have no other business model.

In an ideal world, major Android vendors such as Samsung would take notice and begin to make drastic changes to their branches of Android in order to compete with Apple in the privacy department. Leaving the Pixel as the worst choice when it comes to privacy :p

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#88

Post by [deleted] »

ipunchghosts wrote: post #66

> Like many, I was surprised and shocked by the election of Donald Trump as president. To me, this is a fundamental flaw with those in charge of our security. Your job in security is essentially to predict the future. The best security should be surprised by nothing. I can't see how BS was surprised by Trump being elected. he had literally millions of datapoints to sample. The election is not some hidden process that…

[deleted]
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