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Yeah, I rely on a Chromebook for most of what I do, and I sometimes wonder if US spy agencies have backdoor access to Google servers or even their mobile operat

Yeah, I rely on a Chromebook for most of what I do, and I sometimes wonder if US spy agencies have backdoor access to Google servers or even their mobile operating systems.

yazzku 4y ago
Why do you need to wonder at this point? It's obvious that they do, we know that much from the Snowden leaks.
- naithan 4y ago
  I was specifically referring to the extent of hidden collusion between US tech companies and US security establishment and military. There's passive collusion which is turning a blind eye, an example of which might be this: https://www.wired.com/2013/10/nsa-hacked-yahoo-google-cables/ https://www.wired.com/2013/10/nsa-hacked-yahoo-google-cables... It seems implausible that nobody in these companies, especially in their information security departments, had known or at least suspected that such activities were taking place before the Snowden leaks. That said, overt collusion with the US government behind the scenes is a different matter. It's been public knowledge for at least a decade that they can access the data of non-US citizens stored on the cloud servers of US tech companies, but in Google's case specifically, I couldn't find any credible claim online that US intelligence has secret backdoors on Android or Chrome OS devices that grant access to locally stored data. Given that Android and Chrome OS are opensource, I don't see this as a likely possibility. On the other hand, the security of Google software depends on the trustworthiness of Google itself and the integrity of its OTA software updates. It's theoretically possible that companies like Google may have secret backroom deals with the NSA that enable the latter to push malicious code onto the devices of targeted individuals and groups via OTA updates, but I don't think Google is likely to have agreed to such a flagrant violation of consumer trust as to jeopardize their entire business model.

Yeah, I rely on a Chromebook for most of what I do, and I sometimes wonder if US spy agencies have backdoor access to Google servers or even their mobile operating systems.

yazzku 4y ago

Why do you need to wonder at this point? It's obvious that they do, we know that much from the Snowden leaks.

naithan 4y ago
I was specifically referring to the extent of hidden collusion between US tech companies and US security establishment and military. There's passive collusion which is turning a blind eye, an example of which might be this: https://www.wired.com/2013/10/nsa-hacked-yahoo-google-cables/ https://www.wired.com/2013/10/nsa-hacked-yahoo-google-cables... It seems implausible that nobody in these companies, especially in their information security departments, had known or at least suspected that such activities were taking place before the Snowden leaks. That said, overt collusion with the US government behind the scenes is a different matter. It's been public knowledge for at least a decade that they can access the data of non-US citizens stored on the cloud servers of US tech companies, but in Google's case specifically, I couldn't find any credible claim online that US intelligence has secret backdoors on Android or Chrome OS devices that grant access to locally stored data. Given that Android and Chrome OS are opensource, I don't see this as a likely possibility. On the other hand, the security of Google software depends on the trustworthiness of Google itself and the integrity of its OTA software updates. It's theoretically possible that companies like Google may have secret backroom deals with the NSA that enable the latter to push malicious code onto the devices of targeted individuals and groups via OTA updates, but I don't think Google is likely to have agreed to such a flagrant violation of consumer trust as to jeopardize their entire business model.