3 ms·

I hope the spread of this sort of thing helps push forward general implementations of owner customizable Views and associated triggers of our systems and data r

by xoa 8y ago

I hope the spread of this sort of thing helps push forward general implementations of owner customizable Views and associated triggers of our systems and data rather then the long standing default of binary access/no access. All the technical foundations for this exist right now, and in the case of Apple in particularly they've already got it all together in every modern iDevice. They've got a well hardened and integrated HSM, data siloing and per-file class based hierarchal encryption ("Data Protection"), large amounts of sensors, biometric readers capable of discerning multiple inputs, and an interface amenable to adaption so that even regular users could intuitively understand a View system. Plus for mobile there is an entirely non-security related aspect which is growing in the public consciousness: our limited attention and mental focus budget. With all that what I'd like to see is a simple interface to create arbitrary numbers of custom Views with associated triggers. The default one would be as we have it now: everything you load is visible at all times after unlock. But then you could create a new one, and select which apps (and in turn associated data in that app silo) appear and which preferences are accessible, then have a "This view will be made active when..." with nice UI for various key conditionals (time, geography, speed, network connection, biometrics, and/or password). It'd then be easy to ensure that while traveling between locations only maps, ride hailing and airline apps would be available for example. If anyone stole the device, or for that matter compelled it in any other way, none of my financials or private info would be available. I couldn't even be compelled to do it at that location, it'd be genuinely out of my control, backed by the same hardware crypto system providing standard FDE. This isn't even about government fully or even in large part, in dangerous parts of the world just as modern device net locks reduced the value of stealing a device a spread of "tourists and the like literally cannot be made to transfer money or the like on the street" could reduce the incentives for certain crime. And again it'd be a very grokable common sense feature for the attention issue too. These days information overload and things trying to grab for some of our mindshare is a huge source of stress. I'd love if my devices, rather then always being a matter of adding on, started being able to actively help me subtract instead. I could compartmentalize work apps to only even "exist" away from home, no temptation or notifications even show up. And vice versa, entertainment distractions vanish as I enter certain locations. "Willpower" is something of a limited resource too and in practice often comes down to essentially planning ahead to avoid temptations in the first place, not going to the grocery store when starving for example. Our digital devices should be, at our individual direction, automatically helping us as humans. I think that'd be a valuable next step anyway, but the fact that vastly more powerful and user friendly coercion code type systems could be made widespread too would also be helpful in taking back some of the privacy digital can also take away.

walterbell 8y ago
QubesOS enables some of this today, at high setup cost. iOS12 Shortcuts may enable this in the future, if apps can be tagged by users with custom metadata, which then drives a OS-wide policy engine. iOS "Screen Time" has arbitrary categories of apps, some of which incorrectly classify social apps (like Flipboard) as "Reading". This need to be customizable based on user priorities.
- xoa 8y ago
  >QubesOS enables some of this today, at high setup cost. While I think that it can't really work as I envision without hardware integration, in addition user friendliness is in fact a key part because this is another case where widespread adoption would have a kind of emergent "herd immunity" effect. The effect of introducing kill switches ("Activation Lock" in Apple terms) for phones is a good example. From an NYT article from that era [0] following Apple's general push of the feature: >"Comparing data in the six months before and after Apple released its anti-theft feature, police said iPhone robberies in San Francisco dropped 38 percent. In London, they fell 24 percent." >"In New York City, robberies (which typically involve a threat of violence) of Apple products dropped 19 percent and grand larcenies of Apple products dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same time period from 2013, according to a report from the New York attorney general’s office, which included data from the New York City Police Department. By comparison, thefts of Samsung products increased 51 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same period a year ago, the report said." Now, with jailbreaking before that it was already possible to have a relatively effective remote kill switch type of feature, and there were even commercial jailbreak products to that effect (or to try to track it down and find it). But when only one in thousands or tens to hundreds of thousands of phones might have something like that, it wouldn't have any larger effect beyond the specific feature working as intended and rendering the phone unusable (or letting it be recovered maybe). For criminals playing the odds it made no material difference overall, if they occasionally got a phone that "broke" after stealing it they'd just toss it. But once it was universal it changed the math on even trying in the first place and became not just a response but a deterrent. By the same token if everyone had an easy level of adaptive viewing, it'd change the math for everyone else as well. And as a very compelling response to an entirely separate popular demand, if it was everywhere and normal it'd be a lot harder for even governments to single anyone out over it. Even government resources are not in fact infinite, and it's an important check on power as to whether they can engage in mass sweeps or must devote significant individualized attention to each case. >iOS12 Shortcuts may enable this in the future, if apps can be tagged by users with custom metadata, which then drives a OS-wide policy engine. I don't think Shortcuts can really handle this, at least not on a stock device. >iOS "Screen Time" has arbitrary categories of apps, some of which incorrectly classify social apps (like Flipboard) as "Reading". This need to be customizable based on user priorities. Screen Time on the other hand might represent a small step in this direction. I'd be excited if it was! ----- 0: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-in-iphone-thefts-in-some-cities-police-say/ https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technolo...

by xoa 8y ago

walterbell 8y ago

QubesOS enables some of this today, at high setup cost. iOS12 Shortcuts may enable this in the future, if apps can be tagged by users with custom metadata, which then drives a OS-wide policy engine. iOS "Screen Time" has arbitrary categories of apps, some of which incorrectly classify social apps (like Flipboard) as "Reading". This need to be customizable based on user priorities.

xoa 8y ago
>QubesOS enables some of this today, at high setup cost. While I think that it can't really work as I envision without hardware integration, in addition user friendliness is in fact a key part because this is another case where widespread adoption would have a kind of emergent "herd immunity" effect. The effect of introducing kill switches ("Activation Lock" in Apple terms) for phones is a good example. From an NYT article from that era [0] following Apple's general push of the feature: >"Comparing data in the six months before and after Apple released its anti-theft feature, police said iPhone robberies in San Francisco dropped 38 percent. In London, they fell 24 percent." >"In New York City, robberies (which typically involve a threat of violence) of Apple products dropped 19 percent and grand larcenies of Apple products dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same time period from 2013, according to a report from the New York attorney general’s office, which included data from the New York City Police Department. By comparison, thefts of Samsung products increased 51 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same period a year ago, the report said." Now, with jailbreaking before that it was already possible to have a relatively effective remote kill switch type of feature, and there were even commercial jailbreak products to that effect (or to try to track it down and find it). But when only one in thousands or tens to hundreds of thousands of phones might have something like that, it wouldn't have any larger effect beyond the specific feature working as intended and rendering the phone unusable (or letting it be recovered maybe). For criminals playing the odds it made no material difference overall, if they occasionally got a phone that "broke" after stealing it they'd just toss it. But once it was universal it changed the math on even trying in the first place and became not just a response but a deterrent. By the same token if everyone had an easy level of adaptive viewing, it'd change the math for everyone else as well. And as a very compelling response to an entirely separate popular demand, if it was everywhere and normal it'd be a lot harder for even governments to single anyone out over it. Even government resources are not in fact infinite, and it's an important check on power as to whether they can engage in mass sweeps or must devote significant individualized attention to each case. >iOS12 Shortcuts may enable this in the future, if apps can be tagged by users with custom metadata, which then drives a OS-wide policy engine. I don't think Shortcuts can really handle this, at least not on a stock device. >iOS "Screen Time" has arbitrary categories of apps, some of which incorrectly classify social apps (like Flipboard) as "Reading". This need to be customizable based on user priorities. Screen Time on the other hand might represent a small step in this direction. I'd be excited if it was! ----- 0: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-in-iphone-thefts-in-some-cities-police-say/ https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technolo...