4 ms·
I think people would be surprised and sickened to know just how cooperative the big tech companies are with the intelligence agencies. Microsoft is especially c
by iJohnDoe 3y ago
I think people would be surprised and sickened to know just how cooperative the big tech companies are with the intelligence agencies. Microsoft is especially cooperative, even as going so far to make sure their systems are compatible with surveillance systems. Yes, Telcos have had to this as well, but I don’t think many people know that Microsoft has proactively done this.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago> Microsoft is especially cooperative, even as going so far to make sure their systems are compatible with surveillance systems. I don't doubt you but a reference would help folks know what to make of this.
- danielovichdk 3y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Enterprise_Defense_Infrastructure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Enterprise_Defense_Inf... This for example
- mickeypi 3y agoFTA: “Companies interested in the contract included Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle” and “The deal was considered "gift-wrapped for Amazon" until Oracle (co-chaired by Safra Catz) contested the contract”. So pretty much every single large cloud provider went after this, though Google did eventually bow out early. Other than winning the second round of the bidding (and not actually going live), is there something Microsoft did specifically that warrants being singled out?
- iJohnDoe 3y agohttps://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-... Kind of an older article, but illustrates the situation pretty nicely. Microsoft has also done development work in recent years to enrich the data with more identifiable information and to make the data easier to process for surveillance.
- Mountain_Skies 3y agoAzure and AWS have so much money coming in from the government that I doubt either company is going to find anything but jelly in their backbones when it comes to government demands for data.
- 93po 3y agoAmount of courage doesn't even matter, NSLs are handed out like candy and force companies to comply without saying anything.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- newZWhoDis 3y agoMicrosoft is also responsible for the Orwellian (and as far as I know still secret/closed source) PhotoDNA, which is an incredible tool for censorship and surveillance. A lot of people are dead or in jail because of that software, and not just “predators”.
- acdha 3y agoDo you have any examples?
- newZWhoDis 3y agoSure, next time you’re in mainland China send a text to someone else including pictures of Tiananmen Square tank man. Some gentlemen will find you shortly to provide a more in depth example.
- acdha 3y agoHow do we know that’s PhotoDNA specifically? It seems odd to single that one product out as if there aren’t many people who could use open source tools to build surveillance systems. China doesn’t have a shortage of CS majors.
- trunic 3y agoIt's only used to match on known child sexual abuse images. If you're someone who has collected any of these, then you deserve to be locked up in jail. No excuses.
- newZWhoDis 3y agoYou have no evidence that it has “only been used” that way. There is NO technical reason it is limited to CP. It can just as easily find tank man or pics of feds murdering children at Waco.
- andsoitis 3y ago> Microsoft is especially cooperative, even as going so far to make sure their systems are compatible with surveillance systems. What is a good example?
- monocasa 3y agoXbox live is mainly built on a custom VPN protocol. The only part they don't encrypt is their chat in order to allow "lawful intercept". This is a custom protocol to allow this at the level of TCP and UDP called VDP so that you can't really forget to flip the 'don't encrypt' flag for surveillance. They also switched Skype to using a centralized system for signalling when they acquired it. It's still decentralized at the protocol level, simply Microsoft whitelists their own nodes as supernodes.
- iJohnDoe 3y agohttps://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-... Kind of an older article, but illustrates the situation pretty nicely. Microsoft has also done development work in recent years to enrich the data with more identifiable information and to make the data easier to process for surveillance.
- smoldesu 3y agoThe article you've linked to doesn't seem to implicate them in particular. Apple, Google and dozens of other then-popular companies were also forced into positions of security compromise as well.
- TimedToasts 3y ago_NSAKEY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY
- andsoitis 3y agoBecause of the name, however, it was speculated that the key would allow the United States National Security Agency (NSA) to subvert any Windows user's security. Not only is that poor "proof", how do you propose a public key be used to subvert any user's security?
- confoundcofound 3y agoWe have a crisis of morality in tech and society at large. When the ends justify the means, and the ends are in fact unending pursuits of power, then no amount of deception, deceit, collusion is off the table. And yes, people who work at FAANG et al are complicit.
- ivlad 3y agoLooks like people at FAANG did not like this comment.:-)
- geek_at 3y agoOr Dell who allows the NSA to use them as a fake employer for their spies/hackers
- ineedausername 3y agoHonestly, people couldn't care less.
- micromacrofoot 3y agoyoutube has radicalized jihadi terrorists and white supremacists, facebook has manipulated emotions and played a role facilitating genocide in myanmar, tiktok is controlled by a genocidal regime, instagram depresses teen girls… though this isn’t much new I suppose, how many times has nike been caught using child labor? how many waterways has nestle depleted, how many animals have been tortured for cosmetics… how many bison were slaughtered to spite the natives, how many whales for lamp oil… we seem to always find something or someone to exploit
- avgcorrection 3y agoNot caring less and feeling utterly powerless to change anything look identical at a distance of more than twelve feet.
- lern_too_spel 3y agoOr people care, but they don't care in the direction that GP wants. I want US spy agencies to spy on non-American living outside the US who have information that affects national security without being slowed down by too many procedures. I don't want them to spy on Americans, but the government actively works to prevent the agencies from doing this, so it's working as intended.
- hutzlibu 3y ago"I want US spy agencies to spy on non-American living outside the US who have information that affects national security without being slowed down by too many procedures" Do you also want other national agencies to spy on US citizens without "being slowed down by too many procedures"? No? Well, if they did not do it before, because of "friendship", then they surely started doing it. Further increasing the amount of illegal hacking for everyone. I actually do believe, there should be some restraint with hacking each and everyone because of "national security", because that can applied to everything. There should be a real reason, a actual threat.
- _8j50 3y agoNot just cooperative but eagerly begging to be useful to them, to develop profitable relationships. But people will not be sickened by this. People mostly only react to consequences and will find someone else to blame.
- CTDOCodebases 3y agoHonestly I am not really surprised. Companies only grow if they are allowed to otherwise they are legislated out of existence. I imagine that growth is actually encouraged if they are bearing fruit.
- opportune 3y agoThere are enough examples of what happens if you as a tech company don’t cooperate with intelligence that I don’t blame them. There is nothing you can do against people with guns, gag orders, and secret courts when they show up and tell you to do something. Though yes, Microsoft is a particularly grossly sycophantic player - their strategy clearly is to be the IC’s best friends because it will get them IC contracts and probably help protect/benefit them in many other aspects.