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> Don't trust old-school typewriters and the postal system either. Letters are routinely opened and typewriters can be matched. For example, the Stasi (secret p

> Don't trust old-school typewriters and the postal system either. Letters are routinely opened and typewriters can be matched. For example, the Stasi (secret police of the former GDR - German "Democratic" Republic) had an archive of type samples of all sold models of typewriters for re-identification of political pamphlets. That's theoretical. I highly doubt anyone extends that much effort to target typewriters anymore. The best they could probably do is match a series of messages to the same typewriter. Though they might not even be able to do that, because the law-enforcement skills to match typewriter documents to each other have also probably nearly completely atrophied. You're probably more likely to be caught by being the weirdo still buying typewriter ribbons.

bobthepanda 4y ago
I mean, photocopiers have the exact same technology so the US Secret Service can see who’s trying to photocopy dollar bills. (Which is what they were originally created for, not as bodyguards) https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2005/10/16 https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2005/10/16
- tablespoon 4y ago
  >>> Don't trust old-school typewriters > I mean, photocopiers have the exact same technology They absolutely do not have the "exact same technology. That's totally, 100% wrong.
jwalton 4y ago
> That's theoretical. I would agree, but then I also would have agreed with this sentiment about much of what Snowden revealed. If you want to be paranoid, may as well go all in.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > I would agree, but then I also would have agreed with this sentiment about much of what Snowden revealed. If you want to be paranoid, may as well go all in. What Snowden revealed is way more believable than the government continuing to invest tons of effort into profiling typewriters. The whole thing with Snowden was that his leaks confirmed a lot of things reasonable people speculated.
jjeaff 4y ago
Ya, kind of like the genius idea of getting a custom license plate with alternating L's and ones: l1l111l1 Might be hard to read or remember but it sure does stand out.
jll29 4y ago
While you are right, note that the typewriters and certificates were just off-the-cuff examples to show that you cannot trust a lot of things any more, certainly not the ¨end-to-end encryption¨ promises but also many other things. I am not advocating for typewriters as such, but there was the story about India ordering thousands after Snowden's revelations, and I just wanted to say why that is silly. If I want to find out something really badly, I will, so there is no reason to believe that people who have more resources cannot do the same.

bobthepanda 4y ago

I mean, photocopiers have the exact same technology so the US Secret Service can see who’s trying to photocopy dollar bills. (Which is what they were originally created for, not as bodyguards) https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2005/10/16 https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2005/10/16

tablespoon 4y ago
>>> Don't trust old-school typewriters > I mean, photocopiers have the exact same technology They absolutely do not have the "exact same technology. That's totally, 100% wrong.

jwalton 4y ago

> That's theoretical. I would agree, but then I also would have agreed with this sentiment about much of what Snowden revealed. If you want to be paranoid, may as well go all in.

tablespoon 4y ago
> I would agree, but then I also would have agreed with this sentiment about much of what Snowden revealed. If you want to be paranoid, may as well go all in. What Snowden revealed is way more believable than the government continuing to invest tons of effort into profiling typewriters. The whole thing with Snowden was that his leaks confirmed a lot of things reasonable people speculated.

jjeaff 4y ago

Ya, kind of like the genius idea of getting a custom license plate with alternating L's and ones: l1l111l1 Might be hard to read or remember but it sure does stand out.

jll29 4y ago

While you are right, note that the typewriters and certificates were just off-the-cuff examples to show that you cannot trust a lot of things any more, certainly not the ¨end-to-end encryption¨ promises but also many other things. I am not advocating for typewriters as such, but there was the story about India ordering thousands after Snowden's revelations, and I just wanted to say why that is silly. If I want to find out something really badly, I will, so there is no reason to believe that people who have more resources cannot do the same.