6 ms·

Facebook, Google obliged to decrypt online messages to help gov fight terrorism

84 points by whitepoplar 9y ago

thinkfurther 9y ago
At least HN is super sparkly clean, nothing fishy ever going on around here. Nobody abusing flag privileges, certainly not continuedly. Bottom of page 1: 30. The Best Free Machine Learning Content on the Web (unsupervisedmethods.com) 6 points by RobbieStats 4 hours ago | flag | hide | discuss page 2: 35. Facebook, Google obliged to decrypt online messages to help gov fight terrorism (abc.net.au) 12 points by whitepoplar 1 hour ago | unvote | flag | hide | discuss Twice the points, a quarter of the time, but it's just so... I'm looking for a really strong word here... inappropriate that it just has to be sunk before it can do any damage.
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  I'm totally missing your point here. Care to explain it?
  - thinkfurther 9y ago
    My "point" is that I'm disgusted at how this story got actively pushed off the front page within an hour. Time pushes articles down, points push them up, flags sink them. Since HN doesn't show flags, comparing stories that are close to each other in position, but differ a lot in points and time passed, or have a similar age and score but a very different position, is kind of the only way to catch on to that. I don't have a problem with that other article being on the front page, it was just the first thing I saw that made it very clear. Do you see a good reason to flag this story? I can't come up with one, hence calling it abusing flagging privileges. Those have been stripped from people in the past and their flags undone, but I guess that's just random and nothing to do with actual site hygiene.
    - brad0 9y ago
      I agree with you. There is definitely some other factors that affect the ranking of stories. Anyone know what these rules could be?
      - thinkfurther 9y ago
        One of them is having a lot of comments in relation to the score, but I don't know when exactly that kicks in.
      - type0 9y ago
        More likely it's because this article is from ABC News.
- mrmondo 9y ago
  I’m still left wondering how this is not even near the top of HN even this long after it’s posted time...
glasz 9y ago
terrorism. terrorism! aren't you scared yet?! FOREIGNERS WITH BEARDS!
- hyperdunc 9y ago
  Of course people are scared. It's obvious to anyone paying attention that, in general, Westerners are infused with cowardice.
  - kartan 9y ago
    > Westerners are infused with cowardice That is racist and doesn't help. People all over the world are manipulated into fear. "Everything wrong is the 'others' people's fault" is as an old tactic as politics.
    - ionised 9y ago
      'Westerners' are not a race.
sandov 9y ago
It makes me so mad to know that these morons are in charge of a developed country. I would love to see protests and massive backlash for this, but I know it's not gonna happen.
mrmcd 9y ago
"The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only laws that apply in Australia is the law of Australia." Numbers aren't real in the KANGA Kingdom! Lalalalala I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
Canada 9y ago
"Encryption has also featured in attack planning for incidents such as the 2015 Paris attacks." This just keeps getting repeated over and over as if it's true.
- netsharc 9y ago
  The attackers also wore socks. Ban socks!
- type0 9y ago
  Yeah it was featured on the news, I think we would need to prohibit the news to stop this craziness.
netsharc 9y ago
When Facebook Messenger had XMPP, one could connect to their network using Pidgin or Adium, and run OTR (https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/ https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/), encrypting the message making it look like you're sending and receiving cyphertexts over the chat apps (Indeed that's what you would see if you look at the chat logs). Which makes me wonder if there's an OTR browser plugin...
maxehmookau 9y ago
> He said the UK's chief cryptographer had assured him the new approach was feasible. As a brit, as far as I can tell, the UK has no such job title as "chief cryptographer" or even anything similar.
type0 9y ago
What do they mean by "other criminals"? Is it that those who were previously been convicted for something will now be monitored? If in the future we'll find out that they monitor everyone will it mean that all aussies are criminals? Australia acted as a jail for the English once upon a time, it seems that their politicians still have the prison guard mentality.

84 points by whitepoplar 9y ago

At least HN is super sparkly clean, nothing fishy ever going on around here. Nobody abusing flag privileges, certainly not continuedly. Bottom of page 1: 30. The Best Free Machine Learning Content on the Web (unsupervisedmethods.com) 6 points by RobbieStats 4 hours ago | flag | hide | discuss page 2: 35. Facebook, Google obliged to decrypt online messages to help gov fight terrorism (abc.net.au) 12 points by whitepoplar 1 hour ago | unvote | flag | hide | discuss Twice the points, a quarter of the time, but it's just so... I'm looking for a really strong word here... inappropriate that it just has to be sunk before it can do any damage.

dpkonofa 9y ago
I'm totally missing your point here. Care to explain it?
- thinkfurther 9y ago
  My "point" is that I'm disgusted at how this story got actively pushed off the front page within an hour. Time pushes articles down, points push them up, flags sink them. Since HN doesn't show flags, comparing stories that are close to each other in position, but differ a lot in points and time passed, or have a similar age and score but a very different position, is kind of the only way to catch on to that. I don't have a problem with that other article being on the front page, it was just the first thing I saw that made it very clear. Do you see a good reason to flag this story? I can't come up with one, hence calling it abusing flagging privileges. Those have been stripped from people in the past and their flags undone, but I guess that's just random and nothing to do with actual site hygiene.
  - brad0 9y ago
    I agree with you. There is definitely some other factors that affect the ranking of stories. Anyone know what these rules could be?
    - thinkfurther 9y ago
      One of them is having a lot of comments in relation to the score, but I don't know when exactly that kicks in.
    - type0 9y ago
      More likely it's because this article is from ABC News.
mrmondo 9y ago
I’m still left wondering how this is not even near the top of HN even this long after it’s posted time...

glasz 9y ago

terrorism. terrorism! aren't you scared yet?! FOREIGNERS WITH BEARDS!

hyperdunc 9y ago
Of course people are scared. It's obvious to anyone paying attention that, in general, Westerners are infused with cowardice.
- kartan 9y ago
  > Westerners are infused with cowardice That is racist and doesn't help. People all over the world are manipulated into fear. "Everything wrong is the 'others' people's fault" is as an old tactic as politics.
  - ionised 9y ago
    'Westerners' are not a race.

sandov 9y ago

It makes me so mad to know that these morons are in charge of a developed country. I would love to see protests and massive backlash for this, but I know it's not gonna happen.

mrmcd 9y ago

"The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only laws that apply in Australia is the law of Australia." Numbers aren't real in the KANGA Kingdom! Lalalalala I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Canada 9y ago

"Encryption has also featured in attack planning for incidents such as the 2015 Paris attacks." This just keeps getting repeated over and over as if it's true.

netsharc 9y ago
The attackers also wore socks. Ban socks!
type0 9y ago
Yeah it was featured on the news, I think we would need to prohibit the news to stop this craziness.

netsharc 9y ago

When Facebook Messenger had XMPP, one could connect to their network using Pidgin or Adium, and run OTR (https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/ https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/), encrypting the message making it look like you're sending and receiving cyphertexts over the chat apps (Indeed that's what you would see if you look at the chat logs). Which makes me wonder if there's an OTR browser plugin...

maxehmookau 9y ago

> He said the UK's chief cryptographer had assured him the new approach was feasible. As a brit, as far as I can tell, the UK has no such job title as "chief cryptographer" or even anything similar.

type0 9y ago

What do they mean by "other criminals"? Is it that those who were previously been convicted for something will now be monitored? If in the future we'll find out that they monitor everyone will it mean that all aussies are criminals? Australia acted as a jail for the English once upon a time, it seems that their politicians still have the prison guard mentality.