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> But (while you're at home) you control the WiFi access point and so can still ultimately control the traffic Is this meaningfully true for anyone? Most peopl
by acdha 3y ago
> But (while you're at home) you control the WiFi access point and so can still ultimately control the traffic
Is this meaningfully true for anyone? Most people can’t view activity at all or block anything, but even people who have some of the skills aren’t going to be able to keep up with the flood of activity on a household network.
This is also a fool’s errand if you’re worried about the OS vendor. They have a ton of ways to bury the data (would you know if time.apple.com was getting your data one packet at a time?) and could subtly compromise other things (is this connection to an ad server snuggling out data in the TCP source port or cookies?). I think your last sentence is really the final word here: auditing can help, regulation can help, but I don’t think traffic monitoring is giving more than false confidence for this kind of advanced attack.
- wolrah 3y agoTo both of your points, I think there are two different scenarios for which there are two very different answers. For the those who are concerned about mass surveillance, tracking, etc, the fact that those of us who can view activity or block things don't see suspicious traffic is almost as valuable as doing it yourself. Kinda the same "many eyes" theory that applies to malicious code in open source, even if you can't check it yourself you benefit from those who can existing. For those who are concerned about being the specific target of a government or major data company, if you don't have all the skills you're probably best off living like it's 1995.