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No one is surprised that non-encrypted channels are being surveilled. What's interesting is how offhand it's becoming, that a police officer can casually peruse

No one is surprised that non-encrypted channels are being surveilled. What's interesting is how offhand it's becoming, that a police officer can casually peruse someone's private messages and apparently doesn't take much care to conceal this fact, even from a journalist.

williamscales 9y ago
From what I've heard it's pretty common for controversial private messages to simply disappear from one's inbox.
- exikyut 9y ago
  Can 100% confirm this happens on imgur too. Shared a link - I don't remember what it was, unfortunately - trying to ID someone who'd done something stupid on the internet, that sort of thing. My "I just sent an interesting PM and it probably won't disappear but just in case it does this is a canary message" stayed, and the interesting message actually did disappear. The chat bubble remained, the message content was gone (so the bubble was tiny). Feel really really stupid I believed "nah, it won't disappear" enough not to screenshot both messages beforehand >.< TIL that day that the imgur moderators (that, like all unpaid moderator situations, have a reasonable amount of drama associated with them) have access to PMs. Nice.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    The same applies to IRC. An IRC network owned by PrivateInternetAccess, Snoonet, also applies censoring filters to your private messages, and redirecte them to volunteer moderators in case you should use words that they consider worthy of censoring ("to prevent spam", of course) I think that says everything one needs to know when even companies that claim to focus on privacy do this.
everybodyknows 9y ago
Maybe something deeply cultural in this. An American couple I knew went to China back in the 90s, to teach English. They discovered all they had to do to request say, more towels was to mention it aloud in their room. Must have put a bit of a damper on their love life.
- cm2187 9y ago
  There are hilarious surveillance scenes in the british TV show Ambassadors
ryandrake 9y ago
They are not “private messages” if they are sent though a medium where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. I’d even argue if there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, one should not bet one’s life on anything they send being private. It’s gotten to the point where if a message I send touches the internet in any way I consider its privacy compromised.

williamscales 9y ago

From what I've heard it's pretty common for controversial private messages to simply disappear from one's inbox.

exikyut 9y ago
Can 100% confirm this happens on imgur too. Shared a link - I don't remember what it was, unfortunately - trying to ID someone who'd done something stupid on the internet, that sort of thing. My "I just sent an interesting PM and it probably won't disappear but just in case it does this is a canary message" stayed, and the interesting message actually did disappear. The chat bubble remained, the message content was gone (so the bubble was tiny). Feel really really stupid I believed "nah, it won't disappear" enough not to screenshot both messages beforehand >.< TIL that day that the imgur moderators (that, like all unpaid moderator situations, have a reasonable amount of drama associated with them) have access to PMs. Nice.
- kuschku 9y ago
  The same applies to IRC. An IRC network owned by PrivateInternetAccess, Snoonet, also applies censoring filters to your private messages, and redirecte them to volunteer moderators in case you should use words that they consider worthy of censoring ("to prevent spam", of course) I think that says everything one needs to know when even companies that claim to focus on privacy do this.

everybodyknows 9y ago

Maybe something deeply cultural in this. An American couple I knew went to China back in the 90s, to teach English. They discovered all they had to do to request say, more towels was to mention it aloud in their room. Must have put a bit of a damper on their love life.

cm2187 9y ago
There are hilarious surveillance scenes in the british TV show Ambassadors

ryandrake 9y ago

They are not “private messages” if they are sent though a medium where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. I’d even argue if there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, one should not bet one’s life on anything they send being private. It’s gotten to the point where if a message I send touches the internet in any way I consider its privacy compromised.