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> This project is "currently used by some law enforcement agencies in countries where resources are limited". Pretty troubling statement. Does this tool help
by alex_young 6y ago
> This project is "currently used by some law enforcement agencies in countries where resources are limited".
Pretty troubling statement.
Does this tool help repressive governments track people across accounts? That’s sure what it looks like.
- narak 6y agoAny openly available tool can be used by anyone for any purpose. The idea that we can pick and choose is ridiculous, and with the exception of rare cases, avoidance of building generally useful tools for the chance that bad actors will also use them is a losing proposition.
- orasis 6y agoBuilding a tool is an ethical choice. Technology has no inherent right to exist. This is a bad project.
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoAnyone who has capacity to harm you, luke governments, alreafy has tools and a fat budget.
- majkinetor 6y agoThis is invalid thinking. Bad actors can make such tool themselves (if they can't, they are not really that good) and have incentive to do that, so non existence will only slow them down. I don't care about analyzing other people for any purpose so I don't. Having this tool readily available lets me analyze myself and people I care about to protect them from bad actors and educate them in the process.
- reaperducer 6y agoThis is invalid thinking. I'm not familiar with the phrase "invalid thinking." Can you elaborate on how a person's thoughts can be invalid?
- arkitaip 6y agoPlease keep in mind that some HNers are modeling their behavior after buggy machines and bad code and that this influences their thinking and language.
- narak 6y agological coherence and fallacies far pre-date computers and code
- majkinetor 6y agoYou are being overly literal I guess, there is nothing to explain. Invalid line of thought sounds good ? Try DDG next time.
- Ensorceled 6y agoThe sentence was unnecessary to both your point and any argument in general. Why did you include it? Why are you defending it's inclusion? Why are you now saying "google it"?
- spoonjim 6y agoIt’s a hamfisted attempt to assert the correctness of one’s argument by fiat. It’s the grown-up “are not / am too!”
- dleslie 6y agoTechnology has no rights; it is a logical abstraction describing the works of humans. I like to think that humans have an inherint right to engage in creative work that pleases them.
- 4eor0 6y agoPolice sure seem pleased thumping skulls. Anything we can do to make it easier for them.
- dleslie 6y agoMaybe your country should worry less about the technology and more about the people using it. You clearly have a personelle problem.
- 4eor0 6y agoMaybe we should police each other more, and technology less? But who is making the technology? Circles. Circles everywhere. Perhaps you should not anthropomorphize technology.
- dleslie 6y agoI am explicitly _not_ anthropromorphizing technology; I argued it is a logical abstraction with no rights.
- reaperducer 6y agoAny openly available tool can be used by anyone for any purpose. The idea that we can pick and choose is ridiculous And yet there are hundreds of laws, conventions, and treaties regulating all kinds of weapons. The idea that humans can pick and choose what exists in their society is ridiculous.
- pca006132 6y agoBut this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with those platforms. Even if this tool is not published, bad actors can still make their own tools. I think we should rather demand the platforms to enforce better measures against this kind of usage, rather than blaming this tool.
- uh_uh 6y agoMaybe we should do both. I take an issue with the argument that bad actors can make their own tools. Bad actors can also build their own nuclear weapons, genetically engineer their own deadly diseases but there's certainly value in not making this any easier. If you take the time, money and effort away from bad actors by forcing them to reinvent the wheel, that's a good thing. Granted, this logic can't be viably applied to most things, but there are projects where you can assume that most of the use-cases will be shady.
- VRay 6y agoBad actors can't make nuclear or biological weapons unless they have incredible amounts of resources Bad actors with a $150 laptop out of a dumpster and a free wifi connection CAN make cyberstalking tools in their spare time
- violetgarden 6y agoExactly! There’s a totally different bar to entry. Look at North Korea. I don’t think they rank highly as a concern with traditional kinetic warfare, but they have made themselves a major security concern even with scant resources because the bar to entry with cyber warfare is just that much lower.
- Spooky23 6y agoThat's silly. Cops are allowed to use their eyes. These platforms are the billboards they look at.
- ttt0 6y agoTools like this are trivial to make and it's trivial to do it manually using Google. I don't see any point in getting angry about the existence of tools like that, as it's beyond anyone's power to stop people from doxxing each other.
- williesleg 6y agoProgressives worldwide use this tool.