British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
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British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
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Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#2Already discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8874624 although I think that one is being negatively scored for the high number of (low upvote) comments.
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#3> Yet in a sign that tech companies are coming under increased scrutiny, British lawmakers blamed Facebook in November for failing to tell the country’s authorities about specific online threats made by two men, who later killed a soldier in London in 2013.
That seems misleading. From what I remember they were accusing Facebook not of "refusing to give them the info", but for "not warning them" about those guys' communications. So they essentially wanted Facebook to do the policing for them, because they failed to do the policing themselves.
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#4That's a fine whitelist of messaging systems to use if there ever was one!
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#5It'll never get any traction, the porn filters got through because pretty much no voting adults were bothered by it.
Very different scenario when it's something that people actually use, especially with elections coming up.
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#6That's a fine whitelist of messaging systems to use if there ever was one!
Snapchat at least is already known to be vulnerable to simple attacks, so I wouldn't put too much weight behind this list.
He is likely just using common examples that people recognize, and the law will be applied broadly to apps like RedPhone and SilentText.
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#7This after attending the march in France for liberty and freedom of speech. Hypocrite.
It's also worth mentioning the Mayor of London's thoughts on this:
"I'm not particularly interested in this civil liberties stuff when it comes to these people's emails and mobile phone conversations. If they are a threat to our society then I want them properly listened to."
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#8David Cameron wasn't just arguing against encrypted messaging apps; he would like to ban secret online communication in general. It will be interesting to see how he squares this with bolstering cybersecurity, which he'll be discussing with Barak Obama later this week.
How can we explain to politicians the extent to which modernity is built upon tools like encryption? How can we explain the brute fact of the possibility of secret communication, whether they approve or not? And can we guess how much damage they'll inflict in these Canutian escapades?
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#9I wonder if I were to locally encrypt a message using AES and then send it via email to a friend, using a pre-shared key, whether I would be breaking the law or not, in Cameron's Brave New World?
If the answer is yes, then how about the Vigenere cipher? The Caesar Cipher? 1337 speak? Writing my message backwards? Making spelling mistakes?
Re: British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
#10This sort of thing seems a bit like banning Napster. Eliminating the products doesn't eliminate the technology - although I expect the bigger players like Facebook to push back on this so as not to be out competed by smaller companies that care less about adhering to such 'blunt force' laws.