U.S. Seeks Facebook's Help to Wiretap Messenger

[Deus Voltage]

Let's keep politics out guys and gals! 

 

So I was originally notified by Reuters for this news, but the same article can be found on this site.

 

Essentially, the U.S. government is attempting to gain more access from Facebook's encrypted messenger for "criminal" related purposes:

 

Quote

The U.S. government is trying to force Facebook Inc <FB.O> to break the encryption in its popular Messenger app so law enforcement may listen to a suspect's voice conversations in a criminal probe, three people briefed on the case said, resurrecting the issue of whether companies can be compelled to alter their products to enable surveillance

Also:

 

Quote

Unlike the San Bernardino case, where the FBI wanted to crack one iPhone in its possession, prosecutors are seeking a wiretap of ongoing voice conversations by one person on Facebook Messenger.

 

As to Facebook, they say "it can only comply with the government's request if it rewrites the code relied upon by all its users to remove encryption or else hacks the government's current target, according to the sources."

 

My opinion:

It's not like Facebook wasn't doing shady things in the first place, that much is clear to more and more people nowadays. Still, this is a new red line that's being crossed, new uncharted territories in terms of breach of privacy.

[Hip]

If they seek help now, they probably already did their job. Using "social" media at all is nothing but stupid if someone wants to stay anonymous anyway. Facebook was surely pushed by secret services with money to gather data at the beginning of it's days. "Orwell 1984" is real!

[Delicieuxz]

Facebook is already partnered with the US government and is a US government propaganda tool through Atlantic Council, which is the notorious propaganda and disinformation organization that is now overseeing which content is posted on Facebook and is evaluating which of it counts and propaganda and which pages should be deleted and who should be banned.

 

To ‘protect democracy,’ scandal-fearing Facebook teams up with ‘unbiased’ Atlantic Council

 

Atlantic Council is funded by the US government and by NATO, as well as Saudi Arabia and other less-than-trustworthy states and groups, and has a extensive history of rabid McCarthyism and of making false allegations against innocent people and witch hunts against those who say things contrary to US government propaganda. And there have been many informative and accurate news agencies and pages deleted from Facebook without explanation since Atlantic Council took the reigns as Facebook's chief propagandist officer.

 

Here are some of Atlantic Council's members:

 

 

And there are many more US government and US military employees working with Atlantic Council.

 

Atlantic Council is also partnered with Bellingcat, which itself is a US state-funded group that has a patchy track-record and eagerly pushes US government propaganda against US geopolitical challengers.

 

Atlantic Council was also a part of the CIA's PropOrNot propaganda and disinformation program that was quickly debunked and dumped by US media due to being obscenely McCarthyist and obvious propaganda.

 

https://steemit.com/news/@fortified/fake-news-or-how-the-atlantic-council-promoted-anti-russian-propaganda

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/01/28/unpacking-the-shadowy-outfit-behind-2017s-biggest-fake-news-story/

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-washington-post-blacklist-story-is-shameful-and-disgusting-115978/

 

 

Here are some of the people Atlantic Council hounded with false accusations of being Russian bots:

 

 

 

 

Additionally, Facebook was partnered with the US government as a participant in the illegal PRISM spying and surveillance program:

 

Google and Facebook DID allow NSA access to data and were in talks to set up 'spying rooms' despite denials by Zuckerberg and Page over PRISM project

NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others

 

Any public gestures about US government and Facebook cooperation might be just for appearances. Facebook is already neck-deep in willing partnership with the US government and its spy agencies.

 

If it wasn't already before, Facebook is now a state-funded and state-operated US propaganda platform.

[mr moose]

My take on this is that they probably already can read all the messages they want, just it's not admissible in court for various legal reasons. 

[DrMacintosh]

 

Just replace Apple and the iPhone with Facebook and Messenger. Will Mark grow a pair and do the right thing? Lets hope so, we need him too. 

[Taf the Ghost]

4 minutes ago, mr moose said:

My take on this is that they probably already can read all the messages they want, just it's not admissible in court for various legal reasons. 

NSA has everything. At some level, that's there job. "Signals Interception" is their actual specialty. But, that's the hidden layer. On the Front-Facing layer, it's Law Enforcement groups that are looking for access. That's a bit different, and mostly so it's far less costly.

 

You can get through more encryption if you have the money, it's just a matter of being worth doing.

[Taf the Ghost]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

 

Just replace Apple and the iPhone with Facebook and Messenger. Will Mark grow a pair and do the right thing? Lets hope so, we need him too. 

Zuck is a paid-up member of the Elite. Ain't no way he's going to take any stand that isn't just for show.

[PlayStation 2]

Facebook's been corrupt to the god damn bone since day 1. Does this really come as a shock to anyone?

[Taf the Ghost]

3 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Facebook's been corrupt to the god damn bone since day 1. Does this really come as a shock to anyone?

Considering Zuck stole the company, cut out other founders, and there's been a long-standing evidence they stole huge chunks of their code... yeah, it's always just been a propped up scam. Zuck runs a Spy Agency that sells advertising, and all of the "fun" groups have all the access they need. Facebook's data is catnip to every power-hungry control freak in the world. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Well, if this helps to catch the bad guys...

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Ithanul]

Pretty much those areas are being data mined and other areas.  More or less, if you don't want something know, best to keep it off the Internet.

That about as far I'm commenting on this.

[Mooshi]

Good. People who still use Normiebook deserve all this.

[Tech_Dreamer]

i dunno anymore, there's one side with people saying government are evil where they abuse the system for political agendas & ideological props, then there's proven cases of people abusing others & even weak children under a shielded hidden system .  in terms of trust , it comes to which one is less evil, who can we trust more when it comes down to it? is it choosing which side is less abusive? a government with a clear oversight on itself will regulate far better than people assuming other people will do good . if you know what i mean . if it does more good than bad & it targets criminals with clear oversight,it might be a good thing. we can quarantine real threats at an early stage, but at the same time this can be abused by contractors & officials to do general spying on people who they wish.

[QuantumBit]

13 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Good. People who still use Normiebook deserve all this.

ahah yes those adults and elders who just want to communicate with family and don't know much about technology definitely deserve their privacy violated.

[Mooshi]

2 minutes ago, QuantumBit said:

ahah yes those adults and elders who just want to communicate with family and don't know much about technology definitely deserve their privacy violated.

Everyone knows Facebook is garbo, using it is only allows this garbage service to continue to violate more people's privacy. The original intention of Facebook was a peer to peer college platform anyway. Not for grandma to post pictures of her grandkids.

[QuantumBit]

Just now, Mooshi said:

Everyone knows Facebook is garbo, using it is only allows this garbage service to continue to violate more people's privacy. The original intention of Facebook was a peer to peer college platform anyway. Not for grandma to post pictures of her grandkids.

But it's intentions have clearly have changed. A lot of facebook users consist of parents and grandparents trying to connect with their family, you can't blame them for that.

[Wolther]

Facebook will give your information for even the smallest amount of money, no surprise to me if they come to an agreement rather quickly. 

[Doobeedoo]

Like no way... 

[Amazonsucks]

15 hours ago, mr moose said:

My take on this is that they probably already can read all the messages they want, just it's not admissible in court for various legal reasons. 

If they keep chipping away at privacy laws little by little like they already are, everything will be admissabe and backdoored in a few years and effective encryption will be banned. 

 

You know, like it already is in China, Russia and other totalitarian dystopian nations.

[asus killer]

i continue to think government should be able to access this encrypted messaging services, as long as there is a judge and a court and all that. I won't change my mind.

 

People that have a problem with someone listening to their conversations shouldn't use FB messenger to keep it private anyway , that is beyond stupid. There are better ways to do it.

[Deus Voltage]

5 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i continue to think government should be able to access this encrypted messaging services, as long as there is a judge and a court and all that. I won't change my mind.

 

People that have a problem with someone listening to their conversations shouldn't use FB messenger to keep it private anyway , that is beyond stupid. There are better ways to do it.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

5 hours ago, asus killer said:

i continue to think government should be able to access this encrypted messaging services, as long as there is a judge and a court and all that.

Yeah, like that doesn't get abused.  They find a couple of judges who feel that the government should have access to everything no matter what, then put them together in a secret court and let them approve almost every request for a warrant.

[asus killer]

2 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

Yeah, like that doesn't get abused.  They find a couple of judges who feel that the government should have access to everything no matter what, then put them together in a secret court and let them approve almost every request for a warrant.

don't blame me for America not having independent judges. Beacon of democracy and all that

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, Amazonsucks said:

If they keep chipping away at privacy laws little by little like they already are, everything will be admissabe and backdoored in a few years and effective encryption will be banned. 

 

You know, like it already is in China, Russia and other totalitarian dystopian nations.

Good thing I don't live in one of those countries then.   If you are really afraid of it, then vote out your government or start a new party to fix the issues.  The US must be one of the few governments that people could argue is slipping from a free nation to a dictatorship.

[TacoSenpai]

10 hours ago, asus killer said:

i continue to think government should be able to access this encrypted messaging services, as long as there is a judge and a court and all that. I won't change my mind.

 

People that have a problem with someone listening to their conversations shouldn't use FB messenger to keep it private anyway , that is beyond stupid. There are better ways to do it.

Yeah to me its fairly simple.  Apply the existing amendments get a search warrant with probable cause.  Now what I would have a problem with is having a government have unfettered access to monitor you and access anything and everything they want to on you WITHOUT probable cause and WITHOUT a warrant.  That is a problem to me.