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I remember when canaries were useful as a deterrent: even with an apathetic public on balance the tech community was pretty vigilant. These days Snowden is scr
by benreesman 2y ago
I remember when canaries were useful as a deterrent: even with an apathetic public on balance the tech community was pretty vigilant.
These days Snowden is screaming into the void even as concerns HN readers, never mind that he was completely right at great personal cost the first time.
I still trust Moxie, and Carmack/Palmer/etc. seem to be taking a stand, there are others, but it’s getting thin.
- themoonisachees 2y agoThe main problem with canaries is that it's dead easy for a government to remove them from existence, simply issue subpoenas to every website that has one. The users could then decide to jump ship but realistically they won't.
- Mayzie 2y ago> The main problem with canaries is that it's dead easy for a government to remove them from existence, simply issue subpoenas to every website that has one. Why can't social media platforms implement warrant canaries per user profile?
- benreesman 2y agoI don’t disagree, but I’ll observe that governments used to be much less friendly with tech incumbents, at least in public. Ten years ago it was a scandal that big tech interacted with the surveillance state at all: Zuckerberg drove an initiative around cross-DC encryption at ruinous expense because of the mere accusation that the NSA might have a tap. Today they’re giving us the finger with NSA board members. It’s flagrant, arrogant, and anti-hacker anything: you will do nothing, because you can do nothing.
- supriyo-biswas 2y agoPoliticians have been largely able to convince that it's tech that it's evil, with their actions always being colored through a political lens, whether it's "helping pedophiles" or "spreading misinformation" or what have you. The vassalization of these companies was imminent, and now, it is complete.
- benreesman 2y agoI don’t expect much from politicians, in my lifetime the political class has mostly seemed to be pretty nakedly self-serving. I’m sad because so many of my personal heroes, the hackers I’ve admired, are just on board past any possible argument that it’s in the public welfare. I learn in the same month that OpenAI is satisfying their voracious appetite for data with an NSA partnership as I do that the old-school FB infra braintrust is taking the money. I’m embarrassed by all of this. I want to be remembered as part of something else.
- thereddaikon 2y agoThis isn't binary. They are both evil. Neither group is your friend nor do they have your best interests at heart.
- giancarlostoro 2y agoToday they're paying for the right to have social media companies do their bidding, according to the Twitter Files Drop a little while back.
- josefx 2y agoThe government doesn't even have to remove them from existence. A judge most likely wont care how you leaked information you where told to keep secret and will just throw the book at you wether you used a canary to do so or not.
- chinathrow 2y agoPalmer?
- qarl 2y agoYou know, the billionaire class who give money to Trump and use their techno skills to invent new and super deadly weapon systems thereby increasing their dragon-like hoard. True patriots.
- pie420 2y agoGovernment employee Palmer???
- hobs 2y agoPalmer... Lucky? A stand? As in starting a company to sell AI and Robots to the DoD? Huh?