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marmar

(76,985 posts)
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 12:11 PM Jan 2016

Asking Silicon Valley to 'disrupt' terrorists is tech talk for 'surveillance'


(Guardian UK) The White House and its national security team are set to meet Friday with the country’s largest tech companies, like Facebook and Google, to discuss how they can help “disrupt” Isis’s online activities (that cringe-worthy phrase is theirs, not mine). On the agenda: censorship and invasive anti-privacy and security measures that could affect not just Isis supporters, but everyone who uses the internet.

You can hate Isis while still being disturbed about the lengths the government is going to pressure these tech companies. There are so many shady things going on with this meeting it’s hard to know where to start.

First, tech companies were reportedly lured into the meeting with the promise that it was going to be about how to prevent Isis from using social media to amplify its message (we’ll get to that later on), but then, as the Guardian’s Danny Yadron reported, US officials pulled a “bait and switch” on the tech companies and cornered them into discussing encryption as well. FBI director Jim Comey’s “participation in the meeting was on the condition of encryption being on the agenda,” according to the Washington Post.

Despite the huge security benefits to encryption and the fact that it has not played a significant role in any of the recent terrorist attacks, the FBI has been on a warpath to get tech companies to stop using end-to-end encryption in some of their communications tools, essentially asking tech giants to give the government a “back door” to make sure there is not any communication platform that they cannot spy on.

This is a dangerously short-sighted move that will not only weaken internet security for everyone and put everyone’s privacy at further risk, but will also give Russia, China and other authoritarian countries the green light to demand the exact same thing to crush dissent. .....................(more)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/08/white-house-silicon-valley-meeting-terrorism-social-media-facebook-twitter-microsoft-youtube-apple




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IDemo

(16,926 posts)
1. I'd like someone to explain precisely what backdoor is going to function
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 12:21 PM
Jan 2016

to enable the NSA, FBI, CIA or your local cops to eyeball encrypted communications while guaranteeing that China, Russia, North Korea and Tim from Fresno are not going to have the same opportunity.

I'll wait right here.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
2. Just as Iraq provided the excuse for the Patriot Act, NSA snooping, TSA, etc
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 02:16 PM
Jan 2016

now ISIS is the excuse to take over the internet.

VPN will be outlawed, soon.

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
4. Outlawing VPN would destroy huge parts of the tech industry, and thus the economy as a whole
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 02:33 PM
Jan 2016

With the economy in its already dubious state, I don't think anyone in their right mind would do that. Left or RWers

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
5. I did not think anyone in their right mind would:
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 04:02 PM
Jan 2016

create torture, black prisons, spying on all Americans as well as supposed allies, droning civilians, including Americans, to death,
allow and cover up an entire city's pollution of drinking water, take billions from our pocket to enrich banks and corporations,
etc
etc
etc
etc
but damned if they did not do all that.

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
6. I was not surprised that any of that stuff happened
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 05:22 PM
Jan 2016

CIA has done it forever. GWB wasn't going to stop them

 

Shandris

(3,447 posts)
3. It's really too bad no one predicted how this would go.
Sat Jan 9, 2016, 02:30 PM
Jan 2016

Oh wait, yeah, a lot of us did, huh.

But they're wrong on one thing. It's not 'short-sighted'. It's signalling EXACTLY what they want it to signal. And then we'll have 'no recourse' but to follow suit a la Clash of the Tribes. "Whoops, guess we need to crush some dissent here too!" Besides, it's not like they haven't trained Twitter to destroy anyone they don't like. It's practically a Pavlovian attack dog as it stands.



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