3 ms·

Very interesting hardware; I particularly like the hardware killswitches for the sensors (microphone and camera) and radios (WiFI & Bluetooth). It looks attrac

by wtbob 11y ago

Very interesting hardware; I particularly like the hardware killswitches for the sensors (microphone and camera) and radios (WiFI & Bluetooth). It looks attractive, too, which actually matters. But there's no way I'd ever give money to someone who has hired the execrable Jacob Applebaum. No way.

madez 11y ago
If I may ask, why are you so negative about Jacob Appelbaum?
- stonepie 11y ago
  I don't know the OP's concerns, but for me, the facts are these: (a) he claims jtags on an HP 1U (a standard port for doing installation/manufacturing) are there to permit 3d party monitoring. I.e., jtags == NSA evil, per se. (b) He claims MORECOWBELLs was for "BDA", battle damage assessment. Literally. Literally BDA. I.e., his belief is that a USD 100M drone drops payload on a target, and then ... per Applebaum ... lossy unreliable udp DNS packets (from a MORECOWBELLs node) are used to assess impact (and not, for example, satellite, the drone itself, or other traditional BDA). The nub is that the MORECOWBELL slide deck talked about the program using a BDA metaphor (good job, Booze Allen), but Applebaum took this literally. As wrong and misguided as done warfare is, they do NOT, categorically, use DNS packets the verify damage on the battlefield. (c) He claims (@ CCC no less) that Ghostery is a fine plugin for preserving your privacy, perfectly. Without getting lost in nuance, Ghostery is great for _trading off_ aspects of your privacy (mostly network location), but it's not an anonymity tool. (You can in fact buy a feed of "don't track me" users from Ghostery in ad exchanges.) It's a fine business model, but it's foolish of Mr. Applebaum to endorse it as a privacy panacea. I think he's hardly looked into the area of commercial tracking, focusing instead of government-efforts. (Fine; pick your battles. But don't push anonymity network users to a tool that exchanges their IP for less ads. I kinda suspect they don't want that, at any cost.) (d) The code he writes is vulnerable to exploit, and not trustworthy, IMHO. That statement is broad and needs some justification. Just start with a review of ttdnsd, which even the tails packagers note 'crashes quite a bit'. I don't have confidence in any software project he's signed off on. I'd accept suggestions, ideas, but not a final signoff, and never his code tree. (e) He should IMHO answer transparency questions about his financial connection to the pTLD applications he supported (the non onion TLDs). This was a blatant zone grab by bitcoin operators. It would be fine if this business connection were disclosed. Companies abuse the IETF process all the time, but a least we know it's a vendor proposal. I could go on and on. I'm not hating on Applebaum, and I hope the OP isn't either. He's a charismatic speaker, a good advocate for privacy. We need someone like that in the space. Is he selling a book or tickets to talk? I'll go. Does he have a new idea for a privacy tool? Let's listen and reflect. But: Is he selling software or hardware? Um, ok. Lemme check first. IMHO he's a bad engineer, but the press (Greenwald) is convinced he's solid, because he wrote a few screenfulls of a C program (that crashes and is vulnerable to attacks). Perhaps he could manage a team of engineers at PureOS, but I think (e.g., BDA) that he too often jumps to the wrong conclusion. This is just my opinion. The OP might have his or her own reasons. I've kept mum about all these concerns over the years, since Applebaum was merely loud and wrong, and kicking people on the Internet is what the 'chans and reddit are for. Now it's different. He's not just loud and (IMHO) wrong. He's asking people to trust him and buy something. He's being offered as a 'brand', and I think it's fair for me to comment.
- wtbob 11y ago
  His association with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, particularly his release of purported national security to foreign persons and media. The company is free to associate itself with him, and I'm free not to purchase their otherwise-quite-interesting product.

by wtbob 11y ago

madez 11y ago

If I may ask, why are you so negative about Jacob Appelbaum?

stonepie 11y ago
I don't know the OP's concerns, but for me, the facts are these: (a) he claims jtags on an HP 1U (a standard port for doing installation/manufacturing) are there to permit 3d party monitoring. I.e., jtags == NSA evil, per se. (b) He claims MORECOWBELLs was for "BDA", battle damage assessment. Literally. Literally BDA. I.e., his belief is that a USD 100M drone drops payload on a target, and then ... per Applebaum ... lossy unreliable udp DNS packets (from a MORECOWBELLs node) are used to assess impact (and not, for example, satellite, the drone itself, or other traditional BDA). The nub is that the MORECOWBELL slide deck talked about the program using a BDA metaphor (good job, Booze Allen), but Applebaum took this literally. As wrong and misguided as done warfare is, they do NOT, categorically, use DNS packets the verify damage on the battlefield. (c) He claims (@ CCC no less) that Ghostery is a fine plugin for preserving your privacy, perfectly. Without getting lost in nuance, Ghostery is great for _trading off_ aspects of your privacy (mostly network location), but it's not an anonymity tool. (You can in fact buy a feed of "don't track me" users from Ghostery in ad exchanges.) It's a fine business model, but it's foolish of Mr. Applebaum to endorse it as a privacy panacea. I think he's hardly looked into the area of commercial tracking, focusing instead of government-efforts. (Fine; pick your battles. But don't push anonymity network users to a tool that exchanges their IP for less ads. I kinda suspect they don't want that, at any cost.) (d) The code he writes is vulnerable to exploit, and not trustworthy, IMHO. That statement is broad and needs some justification. Just start with a review of ttdnsd, which even the tails packagers note 'crashes quite a bit'. I don't have confidence in any software project he's signed off on. I'd accept suggestions, ideas, but not a final signoff, and never his code tree. (e) He should IMHO answer transparency questions about his financial connection to the pTLD applications he supported (the non onion TLDs). This was a blatant zone grab by bitcoin operators. It would be fine if this business connection were disclosed. Companies abuse the IETF process all the time, but a least we know it's a vendor proposal. I could go on and on. I'm not hating on Applebaum, and I hope the OP isn't either. He's a charismatic speaker, a good advocate for privacy. We need someone like that in the space. Is he selling a book or tickets to talk? I'll go. Does he have a new idea for a privacy tool? Let's listen and reflect. But: Is he selling software or hardware? Um, ok. Lemme check first. IMHO he's a bad engineer, but the press (Greenwald) is convinced he's solid, because he wrote a few screenfulls of a C program (that crashes and is vulnerable to attacks). Perhaps he could manage a team of engineers at PureOS, but I think (e.g., BDA) that he too often jumps to the wrong conclusion. This is just my opinion. The OP might have his or her own reasons. I've kept mum about all these concerns over the years, since Applebaum was merely loud and wrong, and kicking people on the Internet is what the 'chans and reddit are for. Now it's different. He's not just loud and (IMHO) wrong. He's asking people to trust him and buy something. He's being offered as a 'brand', and I think it's fair for me to comment.
wtbob 11y ago
His association with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, particularly his release of purported national security to foreign persons and media. The company is free to associate itself with him, and I'm free not to purchase their otherwise-quite-interesting product.