Interesting, but most of the things in this video arenât anything new although they try to make it sound like it is. For example, the government buying up peoples data, using Graphite & other methods to break into phones, seeing all of the phones in a certain area at a certain time, yada yada yada, are all things that have been going on for years.
Sure, using information that the government already has in itâs possession such as IRS data or Medicaid data may be new, but several years ago after J6, the government was actually taking information for private organizations such as banks, credit card companies, etc. in or order to hunt our own citizens down and raid their homes.
Itâs a good explainer and helps to combat practices that have either been normalized or flown under the radar. I appreciate your perspective on on the J6 situation! Itâs easy to excuse these practices when theyâre used against someone you donât like, but in the end you donât get to pick and choose who goes under the microscope.
What is happening now absolutely is new. There is a difference between targeted investigations of violent traitors (J6) and technology that instantly gives them access to data on anyone they want to hunt (current issue).
Itâs a little baffling for Proton to come out with this after the CEO was actively praising Trump like a year back. Even more recently they failed to be as combative on the Cop City warrant as they should have been if they want to present themselves as critical of aggressive US surveillance.
Agree, the capabilities arenât new, this level of mass surveillance has been possible for close to a decade.
Daenerys Targaryan syndrome: evil actions against evil people may feel like an act of good, but you are still just cheering for villainy
Ehhhh. The only novelty is their target â law abiding US residents â and their newfound brashness. Theyâve been covertly surveiling like this for decades, and acting on it abroad for just as long
Imo this incident has been overblown - hereâs a write up on Andy Yen that I stand behind
Thereâs already a whole PG thread detailing this incident, I wont rehash here, but framing Proton as willingly subservient to the surveillance state is a mischaracterization of the prevailing ideas in there
Also - the topics discussed in this video are verifiable, it doesnât really matter that Proton published it
I love this video. It ties the broad range of normal consumer activities to documented & ongoing mass surveillance/targeted government efforts, & explains the threats in layman terms. I will probably send this to the next person who tries to frame my OPSEC practices as âextremeâ
OK. Hereâs how the J6 investigations went. People showed up and tried to overthrow the government with their faces completely showing (they also did a bunch of other violent crimeâŚin one of our most sacred government buildings). Then, a lot of them posted pictures of it on social media. Between these pictures, and pictures from cameras on the grounds, law enforcement did investigations and put these obvious violent criminals in jail. (They all got pardoned and dozens of them committed more crimes and are already back in jail within a year.)
There is absolutely no comparison between the methods used in these investigations and the tools ice are currently abusing.
I am not in favor of any government surveillance, but thatâs not what the comment I replied to was talking about. That post was drawing an egregiously false equivalency between the methods used to investigate violent criminals and the tools ice currently uses, which essentially amount to a supercharged stingray network deployed against every person inside the US (including hundreds of millions of people who are citizens and donât break any laws) thatâs incredibly difficult to avoid.
All government surveillance should be significantly limited. However, the comparison of J6 investigations to current ice tactics is absurd.
I agree with you. I did not make this comparison, some other user did. You are arguing with a ghost lol
My point: there is nothing new about âtechnology that instantly gives them access to data on anyone they want to huntâ, as you had previously suggested
Imo the issue was less Proton complied with the warrant and more theyâre less in a position to contest warrants than they were a few years back. Itâs very much driven by law changes in Switzerland, but at the same time if your use case puts you at odds with state actors like the American government, Proton is no longer in a position to protect you.
As for the Trump stuff, yeah sure the Proton CEO seems to have incoherent muddled politics, but I do think praising Trump under the pretense that heâll be hostile to Big Tech was incredibly misguided. In reality we saw Big Tech aggressively pivot towards Trump when it became clear he was going to win the election. Even on a basic PR stand point Proton did come out of that looking at the very least foolish for thinking Trump would break the incestuous relationship between the government and Big Tech.
For what itâs worth Proton is still my preferred email provider, Iâm going to work around its limitations since Tuta which is its closest competitor still feels janky to me whenever I try use it.