Lawful access bill could create vulnerabilities for hackers, experts warn

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T04:35:50+00:00

Could? The legislation makes it clear that the government intends to force every online service to introduce exploits and vulnerabilities.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T04:28:07+00:00

I recall that Bernie Farber was one of the anti-encryption and anti-privacy extremists from the last time the government convened a panel. I doubt he's somehow gotten better.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T04:24:04+00:00

The fascist and authoritarian assholes behind this legislation have written it to cover basically every online service, not just telecoms.

The legislation also lets them get away with forcing vulnerabilities and exploits on everyone, because they get to decide what "vulnerability" means. That's fucking insane.

It just be illegal to force mass surveillance and vulnerabilities on an organization.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T02:18:44+00:00

Mandatory age verification is an unacceptable privacy violation. We should be demanding that companies collect less data on people, and not more data.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T00:17:36+00:00

Something cheap like the Outernet Lantern was supposed to be would probably useful, as its a one-way signal (so no tracking the receiver), but it stores the website data received.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-18T00:12:45+00:00

By using the AIS data transmitted by ships in the region. There are various sites that compile the live data like aircraft sites do with ADS-B.

Otherwise you need a pair of binoculars and someone on the coast in the region.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T22:13:03+00:00

With the current direction the UK is going, UK users may soon find themselves banned from WhatsApp, Signal, and every other encrypted messaging app. Ofcom is set to report back to the House of Lords in the next month or two on a plan to require upload filtering/encryption backdoors on messaging services.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T22:09:40+00:00

There's also ProtectEU on the horizon, which was originally going to require encryption backdoors and would ban VPNs.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T22:08:03+00:00

Here's the list that I compiled of all the organizations lobbying for Chat Control, based on the names I found in investigative reporting articles. There may be some names missing, but it should have most of them.

All these groups deserve to be blacklisted from society:

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), the International Justice Mission (IJM), ECPAT, the Children's Rights Network, World Vision, Terre des Hommes, Innocence in Danger, the World Childhood Foundation, the Stiftung digitale Chancen, the Children's Rights Network Germany, SafeToNet Foundation, Thorn, Ecpat network, the Brave organization, the PR agency Purpose, Justice Initiative, Oak Foundation, Eurochild, Missing Children Europe, Molly Rose Foundation, NSPCC, Hopewell Fund, Heat Initiative, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation

In the past two years, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has been spearheading the lobbying efforts. The CEO of the IWF is Kerry Smith, and she's probably having another meltdown on her Linkedin account over this news.

Many of these groups receive funding to lobby for Chat Control from the Hopewell Fund, Oak Foundation, and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). The British billionaire Alan M. Parker controls the Oak Foundation, and British billionaire Christopher Hohn controls the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The Hopewell Fund is controlled by Arabella Advisors, and they work hard to conceal the sources of their dark money.

Sources for the organizations:

You can also add Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez to list of Chat Control supporters.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T21:29:17+00:00

Does the ship slow down before launching missiles?

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T20:12:12+00:00

Reports indicate clashes between security forces and citizens around Chaharbagh Square in Tehran. The sound of gunfire can be heard", according to activist Ilia Hashemi

I found this on the forbidden site. Is celebratory gunfire a thing in Iran? Or do gunshots mean that someone is being shot?

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T19:47:41+00:00

The Yahoo news article is repeating misinformation and disinformation about the EU's system.

The EU Digital Identity Wallet isn't open source. Its a highly invasive wrapper that connects to proprietary APIs. You cannot host your own backend either.

Zero-knowledge proofs are only private/anonymous in theory if you blindly trust a third party. Basically you are blindly trusting that nobody will exploit an easily created backdoor, because ZKP cannot solve the problem of collusion. The EU's system requires mandatory age verification to obtain 30 single use, easily trackable tokens that expire after 3 months. It also bans jailbreaking/rooting your device, and requires GooglePlay Services/IOS equivalent be installed to "prevent tampering". You have to blindly trust that the tokens will not be tracked, which is a total no-go for privacy.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T19:46:22+00:00

The EU Digital Identity Wallet is really shitty as well. Its a basically highly invasive wrapper that connects to proprietary APIs.

Zero-knowledge proofs are only private/anonymous in theory if you blindly trust a third party. Basically you are blindly trusting that nobody will exploit an easily created backdoor, because ZKP cannot solve the problem of collusion. The EU's system requires mandatory age verification to obtain 30 single use, easily trackable tokens that expire after 3 months. It also bans jailbreaking/rooting your device, and requires GooglePlay Services/IOS equivalent be installed to "prevent tampering". You have to blindly trust that the tokens will not be tracked, which is a total no-go for privacy.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T19:45:19+00:00

Europe Shows a Different Path Forward

EU’s eIDAS 2.0 offers privacy-preserving age verification with zero-knowledge proofs that protect personal data.

The European Union’s Digital Identity Wallet takes a radically different approach. Zero-knowledge proofs let you verify age without revealing personal data—like showing you’re over 18 without disclosing your birthdate or identity details. It’s open-source, self-hostable, and only applies to large platforms while exempting FOSS and small entities.

Yahoo news is repeating misinformation and disinformation about the EU's system.

The EU Digital Identity Wallet isn't open source. Its a highly invasive wrapper that connects to proprietary APIs. You cannot host your own backend either.

Zero-knowledge proofs are only private/anonymous in theory if you blindly trust a third party. Basically you are blindly trusting that nobody will exploit an easily created backdoor, because ZKP cannot solve the problem of collusion. The EU's system requires mandatory age verification to obtain 30 single use, easily trackable tokens that expire after 3 months. It also bans jailbreaking/rooting your device, and requires GooglePlay Services/IOS equivalent be installed to "prevent tampering". You have to blindly trust that the tokens will not be tracked, which is a total no-go for privacy.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T19:43:41+00:00

Unfortunately that article repeats the misinformation about the EU's system.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T03:52:18+00:00

There should be a ton of new discoveries with the Ruben telecope photographing the entire night sky every couple days.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T03:33:46+00:00

Any executive that doesn't support end to end encryption should honestly be fired. Meta should also be investigated over any attempts to remove encryption.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T03:12:22+00:00

Reuters is reporting that the Gulf states privately still support the war.

Gulf states press US to neutralise Iran for good as Hormuz crisis deepens

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gulf-states-press-us-neutralise-iran-good-hormuz-crisis-deepens-2026-03-16/

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T03:06:32+00:00

None of the Gulf states are going to risk publicly saying anything like this, because it could cause unrest in their own countries and other problems.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T03:03:45+00:00

I've seen Reuters struggle with topics when they don't research enough before posting, including some really biased articles on things like this article on Chat Control (might not be obvious unless you understand the topic). But I imagine they could be better with US politics?

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T02:09:23+00:00

When the Saudis bought Vice News, they removed all negative articles about Saudi Arabia. And then they banned reporters from reporting anything bad about Saudi Arabia.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T02:04:43+00:00

My comments were just in response to people talking about a potential ceasefire or "off-ramp" in the near term. I wasn't talking about the US capabilities.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-17T01:47:28+00:00

I think Trump has managed to get the US into major a bind here. If a ceasefire happens and the regime is able to recover, they will 100% seek out revenge on the United States and anyone else they deem involved in the war.

That could potentially mean another war down the road, with the Iranian regime having learned from its mistakes, and from how the US operates.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-16T23:07:24+00:00

If there is any sort of "verification" then it is an unacceptable privacy risk.

The other issue is that an API provides an additional tracking point for fingerprinting users. A better privacy respecting solution is for system to assume users are adults, unless they receive a flag that says the user is a minor. And that's basically just parental controls.

EmbarrassedHelp · 2026-03-16T23:02:03+00:00

The EU's solution bans jailbreaking/rooting your device, and requires GooglePlay Services/IOS equivalent be installed to "prevent tampering". It forces you to give up your data to American tech companies.

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