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Cake day: February 10th, 2025

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  • The problem with trying to increase the signal to noise ratio is that you don’t know all of the datapoints that are being collected and some of those datapoints could be used to filter the real from the fake.

    Like, in your example, if you made all of these account from the same browser then they could be linked together. If they were made on the same IP, they could be linked together. If you were using the same phone, they could be linked together. Those are just the datapoints that we know to try to protect, it’s the datapoints that you don’t know that get you.

    Like, maybe your phone or desktop is screenshotting itself every 5 seconds (“for AI purposes”) or maybe the app that you’re trying to fool also secretly sends your GPS location during account creation or maybe the adversary has malware running on your PC which is keylogging you.

    IF you knew all of the ways that they were collecting data on you, then you could take countermeasures. Since you don’t, you have to assume that any of your identities can be linked to your person unless you take unusual measures such, not using Microsoft/Google/Meta/Amazon/etc products at a minimum. Depending on your security needs this could also mean things like using burner hardware, non-commercial VPNs, physically disabling sensors/radios/ports, traffic/network monitoring, etc.


  • How are they gonna trace that to you?

    The modern Internet is essentially about spying on you as much as possible and then selling the data to whoever wants to buy it. Linking identities with devices/browsers is worth a lot of money and so most every website/app has a way of linking you to the devices and software that you use.

    Unless the user took some pretty extreme measures to create the account, they’ve likely logged in from a phone/ip/browser that has been linked to their real identity at some point in its lifetime. That link will be sold to data brokers and used to tie the random handle to you, the person. Then the State Department just buys that information.

    Alternatively, you should be assuming that sovereign entities with the means are reading all public network data. There’s a lot of information that you can learn from that as well. Like, over time, the posts from the ‘random’ account could be strongly correlated to the times that you were accessing the site even if all of the data was encrypted with HTTPS.

    Alternatively, alternatively. There is a threat known as Store Now Decrypt Later (SNDL). The idea is basically: Quantum Computers are coming and they can break some cryptographic primitives. If someone saves all of the encrypted traffic that they would want to read, in a few years they will have the means to read that data. We won’t know when this moment occurs, because it’ll likely be a secret, but we do know that it will happen and so you should additionally assume that anything that isn’t using post-quantum encryption, which transited a public network, will be read and used to link you to your identities.

    This is, essentially, the core thing that the Privacy community is attempting to mitigate.








  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml[Deleted]
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    12 days ago

    Imagine I said that I would come into your house and install a new TV and entertainment system, re-build your bathroom, fix your maintenance issues, clean your floors, wash your dishes, etc. That’d save you a lot of time.

    Now, I’ll even do it for free! But, you have to let me install a door that only I have a key to so you can’t stop me from entering your house and also to install cameras and microphones covering every square foot of your house and you consent to being recorded.

    That’s the deal people are making with their digital lives.

    Yeah, it was inconvenient to have to learn how to setup the software so I could have ‘cloud storage’ using my home server. It’s annoying that I have to deal with IP Cameras and ZoneMinder. But, because I do the work myself, I don’t have to let Google/Meta/FBI/Amazon have access to listening devices in my home (Oh, sorry Alexa, I didn’t know you were listening), footage from my security system or the contents of my personal files.


  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml[Deleted]
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    12 days ago

    Unless you can convince them to get out of the ‘surveillance for free stuff’ market then they’re fucked, not everyone.

    You can choose to use free and open source software and sped time learning and putting together a system that benefits you. Or you can just sign up for Google, let them do all of the work in exchange for spying on you with every device that you buy and put in your house.


  • None of that addresses the company at issue.

    There are several Chinese developers involved in this investigation.

    If the DoD was “designating every rival as a military organization” then why are they singling out specific Chinese developers instead of designating them all as a “Chinese Military Company”? It isn’t because they “have to comply with local data regulations”, all companies have to do that. All Chinese companies have to do that and not all Chinese companies are designated by the DoD as a Military Company.

    So, why is this one specific company singled out? Probably because it works for the PLA, as the DoD says.

    Your argument is basically “The DoD is lying” which isn’t supported by any evidence in this case. “Trust me bro” from a random social media user isn’t exactly a credible source.