As Rob Braxman now says, the value of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for a messaging app is now meaningless when one of the two users of the app has a smartphone with built-in AI that “sees what you see, hears what you hear, and knows what you know” (such as the iPhone 16).
What the UK did and France is now planning to do is yet another way to make E2EE-based messaging apps even more useless from a privacy perspective.
It really puts things into perspective once you consider how end-to-end encryption pretty much became the gold standard not too long ago. Now it’s already becoming obsolete. I wonder where we are headed…
I find this letter from the founder of Apostrophy to be overwrought with respect to corporate surveillance by the likes of Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, given how much these four companies already surveil their users.
But, companies cannot have police-state power over us.
Governments can have that power, and governments such as the USA, Communist China, and others increasingly are taking a dragnet-style approach to surveillance of their citizens (e.g., in the case of the USA) or subjects (e.g., in the case of the UK).
For example, the U.S. federal government now captures every SMS message as well as the meta-data of every call – with no search warrant required.
If governments get Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft to reveal users’ data without a search warrant, then we will be living in the social-credit-score system of the CCP and of the “Nosedive” episode of Black Mirror.
This was already happening a few years ago: Amazon Shared Ring Camera Footage With Police Without a Warrant - Consumer Reports
And if that wasn’t bad enough: Amazon’s Ring cameras were used to spy on customers
"Every single Amazon Ring employee was able to access every single customer video, even when it wasn’t necessary for their jobs.
Not only that, but the employees—along with workers from a third-party contractor in Ukraine—could also download any of those videos and then save and share them as they liked, before July 2017.
In one example, the FTC says a Ring employee viewed thousands of videos from at least 81 different female users. The employee allegedly went looking for camera feeds that suggested they may have been used in the most private of areas, such as “Master Bedroom,” “Master Bathroom,” and “Spy cam”.
Between June and August 2017, the employee looked through the videos for at least an hour a day on hundreds of occasions. Another employee noticed and reported it to their supervisor who allegedly told them that it was “normal” for an engineer to view so many accounts"
And that’s just what we know about. It’s like how when you see one cockroach, it’s indicative of hundreds or thousands nearby.
Thank you, @The, for that reminder about Amazon! My big-tech list now should be Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft – AAAMM.
To my knowledge, the Patriot Act allows the US government to approach any company, force their compliance with data collection/sharing, and place them under gag order. PRISM in 2013 for example was involved with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, and more. We cannot, nor will we ever see the extent of this surveillance. Our president has reduced oversight of the NSA also.
There’s lots of talk about threat modeling, but SMS allows Zero-Click exploits on IOS & Android. An entire signal log can be compromised at the click of a button with no decryption necessary. We know that the FBI possesses zero-click exploits.
I’m all for securing your data, and the founder of signal has stated that their goal was to eliminate mass surveillance, but not individual. The issue I have is that if you’re a dissident, that is someone who disagrees with the state, you are completely screwed.
I would argue that we currently live in a police state, because the police are always deployed to protect those in power and to keep things the way they are. I believe that corporations and the government are inextricable. We have surveillance cameras in every grocery store to ensure those who are hungry, will stay hungry. To ensure those who hold power (including capital) do not lose it, even if they abuse it. Without corporations, our government can’t function. Who would distribute gas, water, power? Without government, corporations can’t function. Who would protect their property/capital? This could mean that corporations have power over the government, or that the government has power over corporations. It’s probably better to say they are woven together.
While it might look different than an autocratic government, I think what we have might be even worse. For example, workers in the past organized to fight for better working conditions. Now, employers have found the sweet spot where they can give us just enough to keep us from getting too unwieldy. I think the same has happened in every facet of life. Apps are less useful, but used even more. Work is less meaningful, but we work even more. Votes have less impact, but our government is more powerful than it has ever been. What do you think?
The upcoming iteration of Amazon Alexa (“Alexa+”) will “see what you see, hear what you hear, and know what you know” via AI.
No, thanks!
I am not touching that with a 10ft pole.
Not only do they have the chutzpah to market “Alexa+” like it’s something beneficial to the consumer, but they are charging monthly for it. What’s wrong, Amazon? All that data you mine and the direct pipeline to Amazon.com not enough income for you?
Insane.
@kirkmahoneyphd I’m so glad I never got this. I don’t think it would add anything positive to my life.
I just read through a lot of this thread, all this combined with the EU’s censorship enforcement and its effect on free speech even in the US… it’s crazy to think about. My husband is serving in the military. Freedom is dearly paid for and easily lost. Privacy is a right.
As a Firefox user ever since the first release this is highly disturbing and disappointing 
I already ditched Google completely and as a substitute can highly recommend Kagi. It is a paid search engine which doesn’t make you the product. Since it is paid it is not ad-ridden and company-focused, but instead highly user-focused without tracking you nor creating a profile of you. Give it a try. I use it for three months now and never looked back. Finally I find what I search for instead of getting dull ad-ridden bullshit from the highest bidding companies as a search result.
They also develop the Orion browser which follows the same 0% user data collection mantra which is currently available for Apple devices, but a Linux version is in development. Windows and Android will follow at a later point. As soon as the Linux version is out I’ll ditch Firefox.
“An Invisible Prison Has Been Built Just for You”
My strategy is to try assuring local persistence of craft and farming knowledge and all else that only took two generations to forget. In case of a severe blackout or economical collapse or Internet outage it will be essential to remember how to live without a fridge, a grocery chain, a car, a water from the city pipes, how to farm and start a fire, and so on. With telecommunications and electronics and logistics being affected, it would be crucial for that knowledge to be stored in an approachable format offline. Hello bookshelf my old friend…
I run my mac without signing into icloud & through a vpn which I change the country of each day, I never sign into any cloud accounts or email on it.
this is indeed a good strategy for the enlightened, unfortunately most of the lazy, talentless and greedy are embracing AI, thinking they can make money, save time or create skills they do not possess, with minimum effort. these willing fools are busy spreading the merits of AI.
as you have intimated we are heading in a truly terrifying direction, one where every action and thought is tracked, and where every physical and imagined thing is commoditised taken from us and sold back to us with a smile.
Hopefully those of us who can see where this is going can, open the eyes of others to create real pushback.