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If I was the DEA and had a way to break the iMessage encryption, this is exactly the kind of article I'd try to have someone write.
by pedrocr 14y ago
If I was the DEA and had a way to break the iMessage encryption, this is exactly the kind of article I'd try to have someone write.
- Wilya 14y agoI guess the real question is: Is this article a DEA PR piece or an Apple PR piece ?
- youngerdryas 14y agoI doubt either but it does cast Google in a bad light. Does anyone know if Google reads your SMSs as well as email?
- BHSPitMonkey 14y agoThat depends on whether you mean * regular SMS/MMS messages sent from the Messaging app on Android, in which case: No, of course not. Those go directly to the cellular modem in the device. Or * messages sent/received using Google Voice, in which case: Probably. These are scraps of data that live on Google's servers, just like data within Gmail/GTalk/et al. They have mp3 audio and text transcriptions of all your incoming voicemail that comes in through GV.
- youngerdryas 14y agoI would think Google Now would want access to your SMSs.
- skeletonjelly 14y agoI've never seen it mentioned. Definitely email (package tracking, flight bookings etc) but never read SMS is tracked.
- mbq 14y agoWell, on Android you can install TextSecure and have even a more secure messaging. And replace the stock system with Cyanogen mod or similar and have a smartphone that won't be taking commands from the mothership.
- glurgh 14y agoNot really. The DEA is perfectly aware that such an article would be trivially identified as an inept ruse by anyone wearing cheap and easy-to-construct tinfoil headgear.
- lhnz 14y agoWhat do you have to gain by going onto Hacker News and posting conspiracies theories about DEA disinformation? Are you working for some kind of anti-US gov agency perhaps? Er
- coldtea 14y ago>What do you have to gain by going onto Hacker News and posting conspiracies theories about DEA disinformation? Are you working for some kind of anti-US gov agency perhaps? For one, why assume he cares at all about US gov agencies? HN is international. There are people here who could not care less about US agencies. Not to mention there are people who despise their abuses and privacy breaches, including lots of Americans. Second, not everything is a "conspiracy theory". And not every "conspiracy theory" is laughable (e.g about aliens or illuminati). Real-life conspiracies (people, agencies etc, conspiring to do some stuff in secret to gain something) happen all the time. Actually conspiracy (covertly trying to spread misinformation or to gain state information or to steal trade secrets etc) is the very thing secret agencies do. As for your misguided surprise about how an agency could ever use the press to spread misinformation, you might want to read on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
- pyre 14y agoThe problem is that every statement could be a 'government conspiracy.' E.g.: The DEA can break iMessage encryption Obviously they can't, and they want you to shy away from using iMessage! The DEA can't break iMessage encryption Obviously they can, and they want you to keep/start using it!
- coldtea 14y agoSure. But that's not an argument against it being possible (or actually true). I mean, in your example there are 3 cases: 1) Obviously that can't, and they want you to shy away from using iMessage! 2) Obviously they can, and they want you to keep/start using it! 3) They can't and they are frank about it. It could be either of the three. We cannot say that it can only be (3) because "(1) and (2) are conspiracies". We cannot even say that (3) is more possible because it doesn't involve a conspiracy. It depends on more information and context to decide. Some situations we know quite well that are unlikely to involve conspiracies ("Jack said he went to Spain for holidays"). Other situations, we know quite well that are more likely to involve conspiracies ("The other 2 co-founders of my startup had a private meeting with a VC without informing me"). Now, something involving state agencies, I'd say is quite likely to involve some kind of conspiracy.
- Spooky23 14y agoPeople said that about BlackBerry BBM messages, and Nextel DirectConnect too. But shortly thereafter, you started hearing about countries collaborating with BlackBerry to decrypt messages... first in palces like Saudi Arabia and Dubai, then in places like the UK. That tends to support the assertion that BBM was difficult/impossible to intercept.