Re: "Enclosed shops" Re: HTML5 and DRM - A Middle Path?

On Aug 19, 2013, at 12:32 , Norbert Bollow <nb@bollow.ch> wrote:

> David Singer <singer@apple.com> wrote:
> 
>> The ability to watch what you are doing online, and
>> the desire to only supply content into protected environments are
>> basically orthogonal.
> 
> I wish this were true. I don't think that that is the case.
> 
> It seems to me that all of the following assertions are true:
> 
> (1) People who are non-US persons must, if they want to deny the NSA
>    the ability to watch what they're doing online (without the NSA
>    having any need for a warrant, and without any other democratic
>    checks and balances), avoid using an operating system which is
>    closed source software that comes from a US company.

I don't think (I don't know, of course) that the NSA relied on any 'probes' or the like in the client computers.  Why bother, when you can watch their traffic, much more easily, by having probes in important high-traffic internet links?  I certainly don't think that any monitoring software on the client side, if it existed at all, would rely on any DRM or the like.  Again, why bother?

I think you are under a dangerous illusion if you think using only free software on your computer makes you immune from, or even at reduced risk from, being monitored.


David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Monday, 19 August 2013 23:25:58 UTC