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Ideally, they'd add a feature where it makes its traffic take the form of https connections to a variety of IP addresses that also host other things, so that it
by jimrandomh 11y ago
Ideally, they'd add a feature where it makes its traffic take the form of https connections to a variety of IP addresses that also host other things, so that it's hard to identify. I don't think passive network traffic analysis can determine which apps are being downloaded to the Google's Play Store, from connections to the Play Store itself.
Even if they aren't doing anything to hide the network traffic, there are events that people want to capture where the main bad actors don't have those capabilities. Taking recent events in Ferguson Missouri, for example, while the NSA could almost certainly tell who was using the EyeWitness app, the corrupt local police almost certainly couldn't.
- task_queue 11y agoThis is true. The "war crimes" angle makes it seem as if its for use against state-level actors waging war. In that case, compromising electronic communications has been a key strategy in disrupting organization and identifying targets that pose a threat. We've been very careful about not letting any details leak to the press about our campaigns in the Middle East. If an app puts that control in jeopardy and I'm in an occupied country, I wouldn't want my Google account listing that I have it installed. Nor would I want to use it on a compromised network. The little ToS they have you scroll through when you install it makes it apparent that it shouldn't be used on an untrusted network. Good for them for making it unambiguous.