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You're not thinking like a Tunisian activist. Most of them have Facebook but don't have servers -- or skills to administer it. They may not have a credit card
by jdp23 16y ago
You're not thinking like a Tunisian activist.
Most of them have Facebook but don't have servers -- or skills to administer it.
They may not have a credit card to pay for these secure out-of-the-country hosting accounts; if they do, the government will be monitoring their transactions so they'll get exposed anyhow.
> "The email list" in the case of a revolution should obviously include everyone you know.
Nonsense. In a country like Tunisia you may well be putting somebody's job at risk if you send political mail to their work account, so you have to be a lot more discerning. And this has been going on for over a month - if an activist sent all the updates to all of their friends in email, people would have long since stopped reading.
- cryptoz 16y agoHow are you so sure that the government monitors email but not Facebook? Especially since email CAN be encrypted, but Facebook cannot? Why do you think the government ignores Facebook completely when monitoring connections? In many cases sending Facebook messages allows the government to eavesdrop even easier. In times of revolution, encrypt your communications. Even Gmail has full SSL - if you trust Google. If not, there are others. How can anyone know what someone's email reads when it was sent over SSL? I never mentioned "work email" either, that's probably a silly idea. But everyone has a personal account too.
- stcredzero 16y agoHow can anyone know what someone's email reads when it was sent over SSL? Email is sent plaintext by default. Your scheme would work if everyone just used foreign-hosted web email providers with the option for SSL selected. But all you need is for one person on the list to be not following instructions and downloading their email using unencrypted POP to their home PC in the wrong country, and your adversary can intercept your comms in plaintext.
- cryptoz 16y agoSure, I get that. But on Facebook - the status quo - ALL of the dissidents are reading unencrypted messages. So how is email worse off? Maybe it's not that much better, but I find it hard to believe it's actually LESS safe than Facebook.
- jdp23 16y agoOf course the government monitors Facebook. A lot of the stuff activists are posting publically on Facebook anyhow, so it's not like it's any big secret. For private communications, not sure; I'd have to think through the risk model of a Facebook group vs. an email-oriented Google group. > I never mentioned "work email" either, that's probably a silly idea. But everyone has a personal account too. Maybe, but not everybody knows it -- for a lot of current and former colleagues, I just have their work accounts.