Amazon Web Services has acquired Wickr, a provider of encrypted chat and communications services.
https://beta.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/amazon-acquires-secure-messaging-platform-wickr
I don't use Wickr, but if I did, I would be looking at this like I did Keybase when they were acquired by Zoom.
@mcfate
You personally may not need an encrypted messaging service, but many people do.
For WHAT, though?
If I were plotting crimes or revolution, I certainly wouldn't be doing it using someone else's computer.
What need would make Keybase-standalone less usable than Keybase-as-a-subsidiary-of-Zoom?
I dunno, I keep feeling like this is all yak-shaving, but without an actual yak.
@mcfate
Just one example:
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/31/protests-surveillance-stingrays-dirtboxes-phone-tracking/
"Do stingrays and dirtboxes have other capabilities?
Passive mode involves grabbing whatever data and communication is occurring in real time across cellular networks without requiring the phone to communicate directly with the interception device. The data captured can include the IMSI number as well as text messages, email, and voice calls."
@mcfate
...
"If that data or communication is encrypted, then it would be useless to anyone intercepting it if they don’t also have a way to decrypt it. Phones that are using 4G employ strong encryption. But stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked."
If you use an encrypted messaging service, now these boxes can't easily eavesdrop on you.
Eavesdropping is the least of your worries if establishing a mere presence is problematic.
I still have no idea what people are worried The Authorities are going to be finding out about them, but maybe you all lead vastly more exciting lives than I imagine.
@mcfate
I tend to keep most of my activities above board, but I do not want law enforcement eavesdropping on my communications, even when I'm out in public.
Well, as I say, law enforcement would find me pretty tedious, and I can't help but imagine they've got better uses for their time.
You're going to use an encrypted messaging service at a protest?
Who takes their cellphone to a protest and doesn't put it into flight mode?
There's no evidence that the FBI needed a Stingray to place people inside the Capitol on January 6th, they just got a plain old search warrant for the cell towers surrounding and within the complex.
@voltronic
I have yet to figure out what my use case for any of these things might be. I have Keybase, but don't use it for anything other than proof-of-identity.