Everything about Durov's statement is so profoundly dishonest that I feel like engaging in a point-by-point debunking is a waste of time. If most of the messages on your platform are not end-to-end encrypted AT ALL, it is less private and secure than platforms whose messages are all e2e by default.
They claim this only targets terrorist groups. I can verify that it absolutely impacts groups run by queer communities in the Gulf, because I was in one such group that was monitored and shut down by Etidal.
Disappointed to see The Markup share advice for people to use WhatsApp in its post about preparing your phone for a protest, and that it's coming from "digital security trainers."
Metadata literally kills, and WhatsApp is swimming in it. The metadata they collect includes:
Groups you're a member of, location, personal info (email, phone number, user IDs), contacts and their phone numbers, in-app search history, when you use the app & how often you use it. E2EE alone doesn't guarantee #privacy
Based on WhatsApp's information about media forwarding, they seem to imply that media is not E2EE, which is another reason why it's so dangerous to recommend the app in protest settings and times of heightened and targeted surveillance.
An important thing to clarify on the newly formed Mastodon 501(c)(3) entity: it's not here to make or influence product decisions. It has no legal ability to enforce any such changes. Primary operations will remain led by the Germany-based Mastodon gGmbH, and this won’t change.
The focus of the U.S entity is to provide another vehicle for donations and other forms of support. The Board has no legal "control" beyond this.
@annika Well, I wasn't involved in the selection of other Board members. And "guidance" here relates to operationalizing the 501(c)(3) entity so that it can accept donations or potential grants with more ease and to be accountable for them.
@paulbiggar Arguably it’s time to do away with any messenger that requires a phone number for registration, and preferably any identifiers at all (which is possible.) The risks are too high and are exasperated by AI, and people confusing genuine privacy with security is literally a deadly mistake. End-to-end encrypted messages don't protect from metadata being collected, and in many cases centrally stored, and enables operators to build out user social graphs & activities based on them.
@paulbiggar@signalapp But the comment is about requiring a phone number to use the app, not just to mask it with a username for public sharing, huge difference.
@ben Lost mine 2 years ago. Her birthday was last week and she would've been 72 as well, so this piece hit close to home 💔 we are lucky to have had such incredible mothers. The grief never gets easier.
Getting a ton of phishing spam by people who want to try and get hold of all my crypto. If they ever gain access to my crypto wallet, I can assure you that the joke will be on them.
@paulbiggar You've done and continue to do your part, while an active genocide rages on. Thanks for giving some of us hope, especially in the tech community, where there's so much complicity it's repugnant.
There was a Venture Beat hit piece by Sharon Goldman on a number of us, calling the letter we signed from the responsible AI community antisemitic & platforming a number of Israeli researchers who have been incessantly harassing us, & of course, you can guess how many Palestinians were platformed (hint ZERO). But there was so much gold that was comically evil. Lets start with this one. I'll let you process that an article said that "AI" & surveillance tech is saving Palestinian lives right now.
Here is a German "journalist" Jakob Schirrmacher attempting to get us to lose funding. He sent the following press request.
Dear <Funder>,
"I am writing to you in my capacity as a freelance journalist, presently working on an article for the German newspaper WELT. The focus of my story is the Distributed AI Research Institute, which has been a beneficiary of your foundation's support."
@timnitGebru What does he expect the response from the funder to be? "Thank you for making us aware! We agree that genocide should continue completely unchallenged and appreciate the role of tech and AI in enabling and widening the scale of horrific war crimes. You are correct to point out that DAIR doesn't stand for our shared humanity, and as such, we'll stop funding them immediately!"