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Alec Muffett Profile picture
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22 May, 6 tweets, 3 min read
There's a bunch of people trying to reboot the #WhatsApp #Policy fake news hysteria, so here's a recap of what it actually is about:

But also: it's really important that we don't fall for the fake news, because...

alecmuffett.com/article/13692
Because encryption is under a threat from government forces, and they are doing everything they can to besmirch the reputation of both encryption in general, and anyone who is attempting to deploy it.

This fake news policy story is very useful to them

Context, for anyone who would prefer to read it in a serious forum with actual journalism: wired.com/story/whatsapp…
And also: wired.co.uk/article/uk-enc…
The literal boss of WhatsApp is trying to explain this, but I worry that nobody is listening any more because its more … emotionally satisfying to them to beat up Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg than to consider what some of his employees might be trying to bring to the table: Image
more at: alecmuffett.com/article/13692

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More from @AlecMuffett

Alec Muffett Profile picture
24 May
A friend messaged me:

"What do you think about the security issues of typing social media passwords into an app from this company?"

socialmediacheck.com

Reply: "How much profanity am I allowed to use?" Image
I mean, this all sounds like a service dedicated to checking your own shit, right? Unless like me you are entirely shameless, that might be an issue for some: ImageImageImageImage
Oh, wait, what?

"We only conduct a Social Media Check once the person to be checked (subject) has provided consent."

So who is the "your" in "Check your social media", then? Image
Read 11 tweets
Alec Muffett Profile picture
21 May
Write:

« yes, there is stuff in that article that's overblown or polemical, but perhaps we should stop, reflect & reboot "cyber" because maybe we're doing it too mindlessly / mechanically »

…and you'll get unintentionally hilarious hot takes like this. ImageImage
I blogged something about this in 2002, commenting on a page elsewhere that was making a good point, and fortunately all of these are still available:
alecmuffett.com/article/113 Image
Nikolai Bezroukov: "the key problem with hardening is to know where to stop…the key principle is "not too much zeal". Unfortunately corporate security departments often discard this vital principle and use hardening for justification of their existence."

softpanorama.org/Articles/softp… ImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Alec Muffett Profile picture
27 Jan
How to become a Super #Privacy Activist, pt 1:

Find a small coding issue that you can be very angry about; pick on an imperfect user-experience bug or missed opportunity & frame it as intentionally being in breach of a vague aspect of some critical legislation. Launch a crusade.
How to become a Super #Privacy Activist, pt 2:

Adherence to your Rules™ is more important than outcome; petty concerns like "international jurisdiction" pale in comparison to "foreigners should obey the intent of our laws rather than cutting us off"

shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/i…
How to become a Super #Privacy Activist, pt 3:

The purpose of the Internet is not for people to communicate. The purpose of the internet is to be a framework which can be regulated by you. Ideally in dramatic courtroom showdowns.

Read 37 tweets
Alec Muffett Profile picture
16 Nov 20
a) i think this is wryly amusing, but because of the circumstances not the people suffering

b) i'm not sympathetic towards Parler in any way

c) nonetheless, this demonstrates a very big human problem for "something you know"-based authentication.
For anyone who does not recognise the reference: Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-fac… Image
The most egregious example of password-bansturbation that I know of, comes from the French data protection regulator @CNIL; take a look at this nightmare and imagine helping someone less capable navigate it: Image
Read 4 tweets
Alec Muffett Profile picture
26 Sep 20
@OpenRightsGroup @jimkillock @Forbes @bazzacollins @Facebook @FBoversight Oh @jimkillock - I wish you had pinged me before writing this.

Obvious reason number 1: ranking the relationships between individuals so that you can show the user updates from people you interact with more often.
@OpenRightsGroup @jimkillock @Forbes @bazzacollins @Facebook @FBoversight Obvious reason number two: search suggestions and repeated searches are a thing. There is already a button for clearing them, just like in your browser history.
@OpenRightsGroup @jimkillock @Forbes @bazzacollins @Facebook @FBoversight Observation number three: unless the user has explicitly opted into something which deletes chats after {1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day} etc, it would be rude to erase stuff - "where have my baby photos gone they were in that chat with my sister!?!", etc
Read 10 tweets
Alec Muffett Profile picture
24 Aug 20
I'm sorry to say "quelle surprise?" - precisely the same happened to the Facebook reporting mechanisms which (again) many people on (Twitter) demanded. :-/
Back in the 90's I worked for Company X, for whom Company Y was a key supplier.

X built a firewall with auto-block of src IPs upon attack (compare fail2ban)

BadGuyZ broke into Y & attacked X from Y's infra; the firewall blocked ALL X-Y comms & impacted N million dollars of biz.
"But we put these filters in for good reasons! Nobody could have foreseen this outcome!", etc… alas, no - censorship, blocking, & control systems ALWAYS have a nasty tendency to blow back in the faces of those who call for them.

We should collectively have learned this by now.
Read 4 tweets

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