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But the "free and open internet" is a vague term. We would not say, for instance, that an internet without HTTPS or end-to-end encryption is desirable, despite
by geofft 7y ago
But the "free and open internet" is a vague term. We would not say, for instance, that an internet without HTTPS or end-to-end encryption is desirable, despite it being less "open" in a surface-level sense, because we know that our underlying goals of a "free and open internet" are better served by reliable security and privacy.
I would also argue that an internet where you are afraid to send nudes to your partner is less "free and open" than one where you can. It's both technically and ethically challenging to build one where you can (one very promising approach, for instance, is DRM, which has the ethical issues of whether to build DRM and whether to portray DRM as reliable - see in particular Snapchat, whose DRM is used for this exact purpose), but it still seems like a worthwhile long-term goal.
- jay_kyburz 7y agoI hope nobody really believes Snapchat DRM is going to prevent their nudes appearing on a porn site. Just take a photo of the screen with another phone. If anybody is suggesting that it makes sending nudes safe should also be held liable for extreme stupidity.
- geofft 7y agoOne valid threat model for revenge porn is, I trust this person now, but if we break up I might not trust them anymore. So Snapchat disappearing messages do actually solve that problem. (And more generally, "I trust this entity now but they might become compromised in the future" is a model with some precedent in encryption, cf. forward secrecy and deniable messages which are for related, similar problems.) It's also not unreasonable to hold that the additional effort of taking a photo of the screen falls into the locks-keep-honest-people-honest category. Of course nobody believes that a lock on their front door will prevent a sufficiently determined attacker from breaking in, yet we all lock our doors. (And we wouldn't say that "change the locks" is useless advice against an ex with a key.)
- AstralStorm 7y agoNo they don't. Taking a picture or screenshot of such an image immortalizes it. Stopping people from taking screenshots is essentially rootkit or virus functionality. (Plus it doesn't stop anyone from taking a picture of the screen.) You're trusting the person to not make this image permanent. Could be valid, could be a serious problem. That's if they just don't make the revenge porn out of slightly enhanced deepfake cloth.