So we know the UK, France, Sweden and Australia all have “pondered out loud” about getting platforms like Signal to allow backdoors into encrypted calls and messages.
This creates a sense of safety about these platforms being secure, because governments want to come after them.
Here’s a tinfoil hat take: Five Eyes is significantly reducing inter cooperation. The non-fascist parts of the alliance don’t want to share with the obvious authoritarian, but the authoritarian one used to share the fruits of their established backdoors with them, and now they don’t.
Note that the US isn’t asking signal for a backdoor. Why? Back in 2015-2016 (last years of Obama), Apple had a loud and visible feud with the FBI. Since the authoritarian came to power, this all disappeared from the media. Interestingly, 10 years have gone by since that moment, every single aspect of our lives has become more surveilled, and somehow the US govt has stopped trying to get into phones? *While the CEO is making hand deliveries of 24 karat gold bars to the Oval Office?
TLDR; I think a safe assumption that they are in our devices by now. Fundamentally people misunderstand encryption. Encryption is only as strong as the weakest link. If your signal chats are unencrypted for consumption on your device, then that’s when the unencrypted content can be captured.
For the longest time, Apple stored your iCloud backups encrypted. Looked good in marketing materials, until they casually admitted the decryption key is stored in the same cloud.
Combine this with ICE capturing citizens without due process. If you have a vanilla smart device, you’re doing the surveillance for them. /tinfoilhat
Not exactly. I’m saying most likely, as far as vanilla iOS and Android, most likely there are NSA backdoors available for counterintel (most likely unreported exploits) that allow them root OS access if required. It would wait till the phone is sleeping and charging and on wifi and then you wouldn’t notice. I doubt this would happen routinely to everyone, but the lack of them asking for a backdoor while a bunch of other western countries are, is pretty telling. And it wouldn’t just be signal. It would simply be everything that’s on your device.
But wouldn’t you say this is better than OPENLY requiring a backdoor? Because if NSA had access (via their own hacking or asked for backdoors in secret), than it is much easier for new people to make new (backdoor free) hardware and software that is harder/impossible to hack, allowing people to have security and privacy once again just by switching, even if it’s temporary.
But if government OPENLY requires backdoors then all new hardware and software would need to meet this new standard, which is easier for the government to control.
So I think it’s better to fight the government in the shadows than in the open, in this regard.
This is an odd argument.
It actually goes like this
Anyone would choose the latter one. Also, this is ALREADY happening. The former is worse
Your modification doesn’t change anything. I guess it’s just two different types of people. I care about consent, and others prefer the head in the sand approach. Both have their pros and cons.
But consent wasn’t one of the options. Government is going to do it in the shadows or in broad daylight. Which do you prefer
Broad daylight, thank you. And a double shot espresso on the side.
Lmao