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Meredith Whittaker

This is the real, human cost of mass surveillance of everyone's private digital communications.

If we actually care about keeping people safe, we need more end-to-end encryption not less.

@Mer__edith

Also, a reminder for everyone the many ways that Meta and their properties are not to be trusted.

EDIT: Let me add that Mastodon is not encrypted either--including DM's. It is upfront and open about that fact and you should not use social media for any sensitive exchanges.

@rorystarr @Mer__edith Thank you, I'll get off Meta when my website is updated...

@rorystarr @Mer__edith yes. Social media is not safe . Texting is not safe either. All companies comply with subpoenas, and the govt doesn't really have limits to asking questions.

This isn't a meta problem, it's a personal agency to your privacy problem, and stupid laws being written for bad purposes problem.

@rorystarr @Mer__edith This is needs to be repeated often and everywhere.
…”you should not use social media for any sensitive exchanges.”

@HudsonHutton 💯. I do repeat it often! My post looking at threats to privacy if Meta federates with the #fediverse has a big public service announcement up front:

"Please do not use #Mastodon or other fediverse software for confidential or secret information. Don't use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social network either. Use Signal or some other encrypted messaging system."

And my post on activism says something similar!

@rorystarr
@Mer__edith

@jdp23 @rorystarr @Mer__edith I use Signal and Proton for all my top secret stuff.

Yep. I even use SIgnal for routine conversations with most friends (except for a few laggards who stay on SMS).

Of course, what happened to this mother and daughter is still appalling. It's a horrible law -- and shame on Facebook for not providing end-to-end encryption for "private" messages.

@HudsonHutton @rorystarr @Mer__edith

Absolutely infuriating case, thank you for bringing attention to it and relating it to the #E2EE debate.

@eloquence

Y'all heard of the @eff right?

Donate more! I don't know another organization that could do more to help. If you do, donate to them, too!

@Mer__edith Sickening. Not only will she have to endure the trauma of being imprisoned, she'll have a record when she gets out. And of course the privacy angle is truly scary.

@Mer__edith ONLY money matters for all.These giants earn millions/billions with such traits.🥺🥺

@Mer__edith while your point still stands, there was no surveillance involved, the police were tipped off by a neighbor.

@theothersimo

@Mer__edith

Sounds like the police needed the messages as evidences ... to charge them for that "crime".

@dexternemrod @Mer__edith Facebook is shit but in this case they did nothing that a huge majority of online services, including Mastodon instances, would not have done: they received a warrant for communications sent by specific individuals, and they complied with it.

@theothersimo @dexternemrod @Mer__edith It's a case for an ethical problem though: if a platform offers "private" messages and retains access to them in plain text, they're not really private. This isn't true for letters or phone calls as these aren't recorded/duplicated by the postal service or phone company, but it is very much true for most social media companies which want access to these messages for moderation and monetization.

I wonder if the two would have spoken this openly about the abortion if the Facebook messenger window always opened with a reminder that messages can be seen by Facebook staff and are recorded indefinitely and can be subpoena'd. This is why data protection always boils down to *informed* consent. They clearly had no idea the messages could be seen by the police so it wasn't consensual no matter how many buttons or checkmarks they clicked.

@dexternemrod @Mer__edith the only “surveillance” was Meta saving unencrypted messages on their servers, which is obviously a vulnerability but is very much the industry standard.

@theothersimo @dexternemrod @Mer__edith And yet they seemed to expect at least the level of privacy of a phone call or a letter. The common layperson doesn't understand servers and persistence and databases. They have a lifetime of analogies to work on and tech companies exploit those liberally without fulfilling the actual expectations. Yeah, this is the "industry standard" but so was a lot of shit recent EU policies like the GDPR, ePrivacy and the Digital Markets Act made illegal. Now they're no longer the "industry standard".

@theothersimo @Mer__edith My understanding is that Meta disclosed their messenger conversation to authorities. Proper E2EE doesn't allow for MITM logging/disclosure.

@Mer__edith Home of the free, but not for thee.

Welcome to fascism America. This is what it looks like.

@Mer__edith You need to discuss this shit in person, where no one will hear or see.

@Mer__edith Did Facebook give the messages to the police or did the police get hold of one of the two phones (in which case E2E would not have helped)?

@smic Facebook provided the messages to police when subpoenaed.

@Mer__edith it’s disgusting and a shame what happens overthere. 😔

@Mer__edith
The proposed amendment sounds like a bad joke...

@Mer__edith 'i've got nothing to hide'...
there you go.

@Mer__edith
This goes out to everybody who has nothing to hide ... yet!

@Mer__edith I encourage anyone reading this who is concerned for their privacy to begin using to a reputable service such as Signal and encourage your friends. There are a handful of other trustworthy ones, but I can only recommend Signal because that is the only one I've used, and I believe it to be the best for my purposes based on my research.

(edit: removed my poor recollection about Telegram. Not recommended.)

@binaryphile @Mer__edith I use Signal and Session, depending who I'm talking to. Unfortunately Signal doesn't let you sign up anonymously (I don't know if this has changed). This has personally annoyed me because some of my contacts who I'm happy to just use text message with now know I use Signal and have contacted me on there when I've not wanted to use it with them. This following comparison chart is quite helpful in understanding the differences in different apps: securemessagingapps.com/

www.securemessagingapps.comSecure Messaging Apps Comparison | Privacy MattersThis site compares secure messaging apps from a security & privacy point of view. These include Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Skype, Signal, Simplex, Google Messenger, Threema, Riot, Wire, Telegram, and Wickr

@Mer__edith@mastodon.world haha "private" facebook messages. i get what its trying to say but thats far from reality

@Mer__edith Also a proof for why #E2EE is for the people, but not in the interest of law enforcement, secret services and whoever else wants to spy on people. How could #BirthControl police know that you did something forbidden when they can't read your "private" messages.

@Mer__edith Also remember that "private Facebook messages" is a contradiction in terms.

So: Yes, that surveillance must be stopped. But we should not support "services" which support surveillance themselves, and even abuse our data for other purposes. Choose wisely what details you provide where is another lesson we can learn from this sad story.

@Mer__edith “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”… This is how young lives are truly destroyed.

@Mer__edith, it is outrageous in several aspects, first this anachronistic legislation and the stupidity of posting this precisely on Facebook. Private Facebook message is an oxymoron by definition, everyone with more than 2 neurons should know this. It was probably Facebook itself that informed the authorities.

@damon @Catweazle @Mer__edith
Facebook did not itself share records with the authorities?

@paninid@mastodon.world @Catweazle@social.vivaldi.net @Mer__edith@mastodon.world they were subpoenaed. Your response made it as if it was something that they randomly decided to do

@paninid @damon @Mer__edith, in any case, on the one hand it is outrageous that some old men with outdated morals decide on the lives of women, but on the other hand, in places where abortion is illegal to post about an abortion precisely on Facebook, it deserves a Darwin award.

@Catweazle @damon @Mer__edith
the ethos of “partus sequitur ventrem” runs deep and is largely unacknowedged

@paninid @damon @Mer__edith, Ecclesia praeterita obliviscens dixit animam intrantem natum, non antespartum sequitur ventrem (digging into my somewhat rusty Latin)

@Catweazle @damon @Mer__edith
The Christofascists have not forgotten the past.

These wannabe Ubermensches openly pine for a nihilistic Dominionist world with iPhones, ChatGPT, chattel, and every other element of dystopian fiction.

@paninid @damon @Mer__edith, Christofascists work with fear, precisely to encourage a return to the past that they glorify. They do not want a mature and sovereign population, they want submissive and obedient subjects they can command. It's pure lust for power.

@paninid, at 70, my eyes already have trouble deciphering small print on the screen, but my vision has become crystal clear over the years.

@paninid @damon @Mer__edith, yes, it do, apart of a dozen advertising companies.

@Mer__edith

The powers that be, or at least their voices, like to cite the potential abuse of cryptographic tools, in particular how they can be used for crimes without any means for a paper trail to be discovered.

The truth is, however, the greater abuses occur systemically, put into motion by those self-same powers who are upset that they no longer have a monopoly on privacy, and the lapdogs willing to sell any information at all to the highest bidder. And those abuses are happening, they're not some hypothetical or theoretical state of being. Therefore, a solution is required.

This is also why #Signal are making plans to be on their way out of the UK. Recent legislation passing through Parliament brings with it the goal of making all communication accessible to the government -- no matter the human rights issues involved (which the Tories, as always, are salivating over).

@Mer__edith USA you are broken ... This poor lady ... Hugz for her

Hugz & xXx