Havent fully swallowed this pill but its feeling inevitable.
In other words you can plan around the worst case, but don't let go of the opinion/social-value that it's too-common and wrong and aberrant.
YMMV, but ime a lot of people have this bogeyman caricature of who the feds really are. The reality is that these are government agencies that pay significantly below market rate for really intense, highly demanding work shrouded with multiple layers of government grade red tape.
As I see it, our only choice is to make privacy and anonymity trivial. Not for techies, but for our tech illiterate grandparents. Push hard for tools like Signal where people can get encryption without having to think about encryption. People want privacy and security but they just don't know how or don't understand what leaks data. But there's the clear irony that the sector __we__ are critical to is the one who is creating this problem.
I'm not ready to swallow that pill. I'm unconvinced we have to. Clearly __we__ can do something about this. Even if that is refusing to build such things, let alone build defenses. Apathy is no different than supporting these authoritarian takeover, because that's what it is. Authoritarian creep.
This is already too hard. But anything that can be done needs to be wrapped up into a trivial to use interface. It has to be for everyone, not just people who are technologically {capable,knowledgeable} and have the time and energy to do this all the time every time. It needs to be standard.
Of course, we should fight this from both ends. Many ends. We shouldn't collect the data. We shouldn't process it. And we should build defenses.
So if you get high enough on the list, it’s like those ‘immortal snail’/snail assassin scenarios.
Even Bin Laden got taken out and dumped in the ocean eventually.
So like Jan 6th - it had better work, or your goose is very likely cooked eventually.
On the other hand, it seems like the Tor users who get caught make clear, glaring mistakes in their opsec. And I always remember how long it took to catch the Unabomber, and how they apparently only managed to catch him because of his brother.
If you don't like it, walk away, seems reasonable to me. We don't own these corporate web sites and can only vote with our eyeballs (so to speak).
That being said, I suspect it was just an unfortunate use of words (current / right leaders) that might lead some people to think I was being politically tribal. (nothing could be further from the truth)
The only way to solve the problem would be to elect politicians who would either dismantle most of the surveillance system or address crime and terrorism so decisively that there was no longer any plausible threat to justify continuing to maintain a mass surveillance apparatus in which case it would (hopefully) eventually wither away as part of budget cuts once politicians forget why it was even "necessary" in the first place. There is no solution to political problems without obtaining and using political power to solve them.
The strategy of eliminating the system's justification isn't foolproof though because the bureaucracy that runs the military draft (Selective Service) somehow still exists even though the draft was ended around half a century ago and is almost certainly never coming back. Politicians only noticed it existed a few years ago long enough to debate whether to extend the wrong of registration for it to include women in addition to men. The eventual decision was to leave the status quo intact[3]. The sensible option of abolishing that relic of a past rights violation rather than continuing to waste money on maintaining the bureaucracy was not seriously considered. That means the direct route is almost certainly the better approach.
[0]: https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/10/github_tornado_cookie...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)
[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/rjgq8s/ok_so_what_has_...
[3]: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/06/ndaa-women-draft-dr...
Also, getting doxxed isn't entirely bad because it can open doors as well as closing them. Depends on how you leverage it. You just don't want the US government and/or the government where you live as your adversary.
If you're a legit threat to national security, then yeah, they're probably going to find you no matter what you do.
If anyone can solve this problem, it is us.
Any tech we create to "solve" this issue will be worked around and/or used to cause more problems.
Tech isn't the solution.
They just have to make it painful enough for enough people to get the vast majority of the rest to "fly right."
I'm certain that this is not terrorism.
You think the world’s geniuses are hanging out here? The world’s brightest are here and you’re going to inspire them to solve what you frame should be a very high priority? There are much bigger problems to solve.
I really think your vanity is warping your perspective.
We don't care if this wall might possibly be easy to simply walk around and obviate, we shouldn't even look, or even talk about looking. The only rational way to attack any problem is to just look exactly in the direction you were led to look, bang your head on that same spot forever.
I don't disagree that wrong things should not be tolerated and that giving up and accepting is no answer.
Whenever someone tries to tell a complainer to shut up, I frequently point out that in the entire history of the Earth, not one thing ever got better by accepting things as they are. It's one of my favorite things to point out. So I'm very much in the reject giving up camp.
But I don't think it's necessarily giving up or cooperating to merely explore any and all other possible solutions to any given problem, and that comment struck me that way.
My impression might be unjust, and so by disclosing it I may take a few arrows myself, but for once, one is explained. :)
Tech is too abstracted, and we must concentrate on the application. There is time for abstraction and time for specification. Tech is used to extract information as well as tech is used to protect information. These are actions, not objects or attributes.
And yes, it isn't the only tool in the toolbox. But it is a tool everyone here shares in common. It is a tool that many here are using to create this problem. One that many are probably not even aware that they are contributing to. But due to the commonality of our community and the commonality in its usage to create or exacerbate the problem, it is worth mentioning and considering.
Don't pass the buck. There are no singular causes nor solutions. So if we dismiss something because it is incomplete, we will never create any solution.
Maybe. But they at least frequent here.
> I really think your vanity is warping your perspective.
I think you undervalue yourself. I don't see myself as a big cog, but neither am I disillusioned to believe that just because I'm a cog in a much larger and more complex machine means that I have little to no importance. Lesser, but non-zero. Were I to have the vanity you suspect I have, I would not be calling for your support as I would use my ego to solve it alone. But I am not. I can't do this alone. Nor am I drumming up people to collect wood and assign tasks, but I am trying to help those find a longing for the endless immensity of the sea. I am trying to help us realize we aren't inconsequential and that together, we have meaningful power. The big cog may be shiny and may have a lot more power, but it is still supported by a thousand smaller ones.
I have no illusion that people here work for Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and so on. Do you really think differently?
> If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place
which you can read either as a terrible "nothing to hide nothing to fear" comment or as a good warning about the factual state of things.
I have no hope that the people who created the very tools that led to these problems, are in anyway going to try and solve this problem.
"DEFAULT DENY ALL"
After which you can -of course- start opening up ports and start trusting people with information. Even if done imperfectly, one's attack surface is at least under some sort of control. I mean -at least- a semblance of control can be taken, however aspirational in practice. It allows conscious control of ones information flows.
As you may have experienced yourself a posture of "DEFAULT ALLOW ALL" is effectively impossible to manage, since tracking down and plugging new leaks faster than they show up is pretty much like bailing out a boat with -well- a squillion leaks (and more every minute).
Getting muggles to a safe default posture is going to be difficult. However, seeing the growing awareness in society it might not be impossible.
Think of nascent privacy initiatives by the EU (no matter how (in)effective as yet). Or you could think of starting school programs akin to "just say no" for instance, promoting more conscious and careful online behavior. It might never be perfect, but some level of herd resilience might be attainable?
Treat it as a public postcard signed with your name, and never for a minute assume that someone doesn't link what you say to your identity.
This mode of operating means you will be more polite when angered by some troll online, as you are not hiding behind some pseudonym.
And at least you won't be shocked when a Website does what Glasdoor recently did, i.e. convert from pseudonyms to people's real names WITHOUT CONSENT OR WARNING. Surely by using always your real name you will not bitch about your employer on a Website when you name is shown as the poster and you will still want to get promoted, or at least retained as an employee.
Tracking and the firms that do it is incredibly extensive and hard to beat (ie browser ad you just scroll by can fingerprint you well enough).
We've literally created this problem by making industrial-scale stalking profitable and socially-acceptable. We've created an entire self-sustaining industry that spies on everyone, is not accountable and that the government can just ask for data when needed.
I'd say this egotistical god-complex is exactly what got us into the current mess.
Just keep in mind that if you write comments, and you also write under your real name, it's relatively easy to identify you by the writing style.
That's what influences the people who sign our paychecks.