I personally pissed all over the NCA with a Pixel 3 and a 6 digit pin + Graphene OS. UK Law Enforcement can suck my dick. Encryption works people. Use it.
Works until they demand your passwords and threaten to label you a terrorist if you don't
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
831–840 of 1001 posts
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#832This is exactly the arrangement five eyes had with partners, spying on citizens of partner countries to circumvent laws preventing local authorities doing so.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#833Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think 3 letters agencies care about the law? Ever heard of Snowden leaks?
Actually my takeaway from the Snowden leaks was that the government tried really hard to stay within the confines of the law, even if they wildly stretched the legal theory to get there. https://www.blankenship.io/essays/2020-07-13/ Doesn’t justify what they were doing, or make it legal, but it’s an important distinction when trying to reason about government surveillance programs.
By that use of the phrase, sovereign citizens try really hard to stay within the law.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#834Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#835Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a... unique take. You might want to check out the Century of Humiliation. [1] The one thing you do have right is that "good relations" in contemporary times seem to translate into "completely subservient, even to point of a willingness to engaging in self detrimental behavior if demanded." What happened around the second Bush administration was that China no longer had to be subservient, because their economy…
> about joining NATO in the Clinton era Same way the Soviets wanted to “join” NATO in the 50s. To effectively castrate it and make it ineffective. It would have been easier for them to politically and economically dominate Eastern European countries from “within”. > Hegemony in a nutshell From Chinese and Russian perspective sure. Especially Russian politicians have seen the entire world through an exceptionally impe…
One of the ways the great empires of old learned to create sustainable empires was by giving an exceptional degree of freedom and liberty to those under their control. The US has not been benign in any way shape or form, but what we have done is become the first empire whose borders are not de jure defined, but instead de facto - driven by extreme behind the scenes influence, manipulation, and violence when necessary.
I lose track of exactly how many countries we dominate, but Wiki gives "at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections" with another study offering "64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change". [1] Those were both after WW2, and these are only verified "incidents." And this has been paired alongside endless wars, often on completely false pretext, that have led to the deaths of millions and the displacement of what has likely been hundreds of millions. The recent revelations of US AID are also interesting where a ridiculous chunk of "independent media" worldwide seems to largely be a branch of the US intelligence services.
To call this "benevolent" is of course absurd. It's just a new form of imperialistic hegemony, through any and all perspectives. The only asterisk comes in the fact that since it's based on subterfuge instead of in your face stuff, some people remain mostly ignorant to the ways of the world - I suspect especially so amongst those in the US and without a passport.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#836Democracies around the world are increasingly looking to surveil and expose private data of their citizens, and introducing laws where simple act of defiance will become criminal. I believe we should increasingly turn to steganography as a way to ensure our privacy (obviously, combined with encryption). Something that provides simple plausible deniability but lots of data to use as a carrying medium should become the…
Clever technological tricks are not the solution to political problems. "Plausible deniability" is cute, but in practice, who cares? > impossible to convict someone over it. Yeah, sure, tell me how well that works for you. "Your honor, the data is mathematically indistinguishable from random bytes so you can't convict me" -> "The witness saw you type in a password to view data from that image, give us the password or…
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/538/
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#837Democracies around the world are increasingly looking to surveil and expose private data of their citizens, and introducing laws where simple act of defiance will become criminal. I believe we should increasingly turn to steganography as a way to ensure our privacy (obviously, combined with encryption). Something that provides simple plausible deniability but lots of data to use as a carrying medium should become the…
Clever technological tricks are not the solution to political problems. "Plausible deniability" is cute, but in practice, who cares? > impossible to convict someone over it. Yeah, sure, tell me how well that works for you. "Your honor, the data is mathematically indistinguishable from random bytes so you can't convict me" -> "The witness saw you type in a password to view data from that image, give us the password or…
When you've been observed doing something (esp with evidence), "plausible deniability" falls through.
But when you haven't (eg. if you had your data that way in an Apple Cloud, and Apple was required to provide blanket access to everything), nobody can come and claim you've got there anything other than videos.
Obviously, a sufficiently motivated actor won't be stopped (see torture), but your data is not out in the open.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#838Earlier quoted context omitted.
Australia does a great job of enacting wacky authoritarian policies in the last 5 years; It would make sense to use them as a staging ground. Does any specific legislation come to mind?
Social media ban for under 16s is the latest half witted idea enacted by the government here.
Banning Social Media for under 16s is a great idea. Hopefully other countries follow soon.
Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#839Re: U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
#840Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're assuming that turning off ADP in the U.K. is sufficient to appease the British Government. The Investigatory Powers Act can also be interpreted to give the U.K. the right to ask for encrypted data from users outside of the U.K. (see Apple making this exact point in a filing here [1].) Turning off ADP in the U.K. doesn't end the controversy if that's what's at stake. [1] https://bsky.app/profile/matthewdgreen.b…
If Apple sticks to their guns, they can just stop doing business in the UK. And the UK government will have zero rights to demand anything from Apple.
They obviously don't care about privacy enough to fully withdraw from the UK! That would be insane.