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That reminds me of when they found out that people would clandestinely use the draft of a shared email account in order to send messages without actually sendin

That reminds me of when they found out that people would clandestinely use the draft of a shared email account in order to send messages without actually sending an email. It’s ingenious and terrorists and even General Pertaeus used it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/11/12/heres-the-e-mail-trick-petraeus-and-broadwell-used-to-communicate/?outputType=amp https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/11/12... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/techsidebar.html https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special...

newguy1234 7y ago
Sounds interesting but now there are encrypted decentralized e-mail systems like bitmessage. So if you are doing anything supersecret then bitmessage is the perfect solution.
- DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  if this is their official claim then it is most certainly snake-oil: > Bitmessage gained a reputation for being out of reach of warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA), due to the decentralized nature of the protocol, and its encryption being difficult to crack. As a result, downloads of the Bitmessage program increased fivefold during June 2013, after news broke of classified email surveillance activities conducted by the NSA. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmessage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmessage
- maxerickson 7y ago
  Connecting to mail.google.com is frequently going to be much less conspicuous than participating in a peer to peer network.
  - chrischen 7y ago
    That’s why you hide even when you have nothing to hide, so that hiding doesn’t itself become a signal.
    - acollins1331 7y ago
      That argument works assuming you're the only one being watched. "Oh chris hasn't done anything bad even though he's hiding, we can just ignore him now". It's more like "99.8% of people don't hide, chrischen is one that does, monitor that guy".
      - celticninja 7y ago
        All the better, when they do monitor him and spend time cracking his shopping list is less time and resources against the everyone else
      - chrischen 7y ago
        That argument is why Apple tries to encrypt by default... and is actively employed by privacy advocates. Your iMessage history is hardly banking website info, yet it employs the same “Military Grade Encryption.”
    - maxerickson 7y ago
      My argument is that connecting to a Google server is a better way of hiding than connecting to some obscure peer to peer messaging system.
      - chrischen 7y ago
        Obscure like iMessage?
        maxerickson 7y ago
        No, like the one mentioned in the comment I replied to initially. What's the point of ignoring the context of the thread and then pretending my meaning was stupid? Using iMessage would be more similar to using Gmail than to using bitmessage. Obviously so.
        chrischen 7y ago
rolltiide 7y ago
some people use the trash section as well. same result not ingenious though
- Liquix 7y ago
  they found a logical loophole in a decades-old heavily monitored form of communication, providing secrecy and easy of use until it was discovered years later - sounds pretty ingenious to me!
  - rolltiide 7y ago
    I see what you mean now The vector could still be monitored it just wasn't where people looked

newguy1234 7y ago

Sounds interesting but now there are encrypted decentralized e-mail systems like bitmessage. So if you are doing anything supersecret then bitmessage is the perfect solution.

DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
if this is their official claim then it is most certainly snake-oil: > Bitmessage gained a reputation for being out of reach of warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA), due to the decentralized nature of the protocol, and its encryption being difficult to crack. As a result, downloads of the Bitmessage program increased fivefold during June 2013, after news broke of classified email surveillance activities conducted by the NSA. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmessage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmessage
maxerickson 7y ago
Connecting to mail.google.com is frequently going to be much less conspicuous than participating in a peer to peer network.
- chrischen 7y ago
  That’s why you hide even when you have nothing to hide, so that hiding doesn’t itself become a signal.
  - acollins1331 7y ago
    That argument works assuming you're the only one being watched. "Oh chris hasn't done anything bad even though he's hiding, we can just ignore him now". It's more like "99.8% of people don't hide, chrischen is one that does, monitor that guy".
    - celticninja 7y ago
      All the better, when they do monitor him and spend time cracking his shopping list is less time and resources against the everyone else
    - chrischen 7y ago
      That argument is why Apple tries to encrypt by default... and is actively employed by privacy advocates. Your iMessage history is hardly banking website info, yet it employs the same “Military Grade Encryption.”
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    My argument is that connecting to a Google server is a better way of hiding than connecting to some obscure peer to peer messaging system.
    - chrischen 7y ago
      Obscure like iMessage?
      - maxerickson 7y ago
        No, like the one mentioned in the comment I replied to initially. What's the point of ignoring the context of the thread and then pretending my meaning was stupid? Using iMessage would be more similar to using Gmail than to using bitmessage. Obviously so.
        chrischen 7y ago

rolltiide 7y ago

some people use the trash section as well. same result not ingenious though

Liquix 7y ago
they found a logical loophole in a decades-old heavily monitored form of communication, providing secrecy and easy of use until it was discovered years later - sounds pretty ingenious to me!
- rolltiide 7y ago
  I see what you mean now The vector could still be monitored it just wasn't where people looked