[HN Gopher] Comment on the UK Gov Proposal to Ban "Bespoke" "Sop...
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Comment on the UK Gov Proposal to Ban "Bespoke" "Sophisticated"
Encrypted Phones
Author : dane-pgp
Score : 31 points
Date : 2023-02-27 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (cyberlaw.stanford.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (cyberlaw.stanford.edu)
| unxdfa wrote:
| Oh no looks like I will have to commit my crimes on paper, with
| cash and in person.
|
| More seriously though I'm accepting this as the status quo and
| keep things I need to keep secret airgapped from the public
| internet and devices.
| dane-pgp wrote:
| There are some good arguments in here, but I think it misses the
| broader picture.
|
| Clearly someone at GCHQ has told the UK government that if they
| want to ban secure apps like Signal, they first need to get the
| apps taken out of the app stores, then they need to mandate that
| phone OSes don't allow side-loading, then finally they need to
| ban "bespoke" phones, i.e. ones that allow general purpose
| computing.
|
| Not only Stallman[0], but Doctorow[1] was right too.
|
| After implementing this, they'll do the same for desktops, using
| something like Apple's Gatekeeper software[2]. Linux distros will
| gain support for this using "Secure Boot" and something like
| systemd-censord, which Microsoft might get Lennart to implement
| for them.
|
| [0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html
|
| [1] https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
|
| [2] https://support.apple.com/en-
| gb/guide/security/sec5599b66df/...
| flangola7 wrote:
| Wonder how they expect this to mesh with the new EU law
| mandating, among other things, open app ecosystems.
|
| Will Britons just import their phones from France?
| CommanderData wrote:
| Britons will willfully comply.
|
| We're just too lazy and unbothered.
| BasedInfra wrote:
| UK is not a part of the EU so it wouldn't have to mesh at all
| unless I'm missing something?
| skissane wrote:
| Some EU laws apply in Northern Ireland - I don't know about
| laws in this area specifically. If a phone is legal in the
| EU, the UK may be required under the Northern Ireland
| Protocol (and the new "Windsor Framework") to allow it in
| Northern Ireland. If they have to make a phone legal in
| Northern Ireland, it will be very hard to ban it in
| England, Scotland and Wales
| giobox wrote:
| Sure, but its not that hard or expensive to hop a
| ferry/train/plane trip to France or Ireland and buy an
| unlocked phone, as one example. Any laws the UK passes have
| to account for the geographical realities of its location.
|
| Just because the UK is no longer in the EU doesn't mean its
| not affected by many of its decisions, given the enormous
| volume of trade that will continue to occur between them.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| >Any laws the UK passes have to account for the
| geographical realities of its location.
|
| The sun never sets.....
| giobox wrote:
| And the Channel between England and France is a mere 20
| miles at its narrowest point, Ireland is 12 (the UK's
| nearest EU neighbors). You can argue it down to zero
| miles for Ireland if you start your journey in Northern
| Ireland.
|
| The sun absolutely does set on what little is left of the
| "British Empire" in the 21st century.
| lozenge wrote:
| What happens when you get stopped and searched in the UK
| (probable cause isn't a factor here) and they find a
| "special encryption" phone?
| hanselot wrote:
| They will never stop coming for open source and privacy.
|
| The only option is to write malware that replaces all
| installations of proprietary OSes with an open source os.
|
| This should not be impossible given the number of 0days these
| typically ship with.
|
| A self replicating reinforcement learning AI that distributes
| peer to peer over any network available and reproduces with
| other copies of itself to improve itself.
| moremetadata wrote:
| The British State treats people born on this island as
| subjects, and will go to great lengths to have a full
| spectrum advantage over other countries, including infecting
| primary school age kids with things like Anthrax (me for
| one), and will do other things like intercepting telecoms
| data as detailed here.
|
| https://cryptome.org/eyeball/capen/capen-eyeball.htm
|
| The state will attempt and do kill innocent British civilians
| in this country and its all covered up. This model of
| governance is employed in other country's but most people
| want to believe the state is there as a purpose for good.
| 6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote:
| From the Consultation Paper
|
| "Sophisticated encrypted communication devices have been used
| extensively by criminals to facilitate organised crime. We're
| targeting the modified and bespoke devices that enable access to
| platforms, similar to Encro Chat, where the software/ hardware
| has been developed to anonymise its users and their
| communications and its user base is assessed to be almost
| certainly criminal. Under Option 1 where articles will be
| specified, we will be targeting those that supply, modify, and
| possess these bespoke devices; the provisions will not apply to
| commercially available mobile phones nor the encrypted messaging
| apps available on them. The proposed offences will seek to tackle
| those supplying and exploiting these devices in order to carry
| out serious crimes and will seek to reduce the supply of these
| devices to serious criminals." [1]
|
| 1. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-
| th...
| ajb wrote:
| Everyone with a precursor phone[1] should probably reply to this
| consultation. And then watch the law to see if you will
| automatically become a criminal.
|
| [1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/precursor
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(page generated 2023-02-27 23:02 UTC)