A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

  • bbbbbbbbbbb
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    661 month ago

    You have to trust someone with these communications, there is no free communication beyond face to face

    • @[email protected]
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      321 month ago

      Matrix (federated) or Briar (multi-modal P2P) are both good options for getting rid of dependency on central organizations.

      • @Aux
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        51 month ago

        You’re assuming that people in Gaza have consistent access to the internet. The beauty of Skype is that you can call a landline through it.

    • knightly the Sneptaur
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      1 month ago

      Unless you build your own, you have to trust your ISP to move packets, but you don’t have to rely on any third party services or give them your personal info to use social media.

      Fully decentralized, open-source, and encrypted social networks exist. The only servers needed are your computer and the computers of the friends you communicate with. (See: Retroshare )

      They’re just never going to get big because small, personal friend-to-friend networks can’t compete with the network effects of centralized media and a never-ending torrent of dopamine on tap.

      • @Aux
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        31 month ago

        From my comment above:

        You’re assuming that people in Gaza have consistent access to the internet. The beauty of Skype is that you can call a landline through it.

      • @Aux
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        21 month ago

        How do you call a landline number in a war zone through a matrix server?

        • @theunknownmuncher
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          1 month ago

          I was simply responding to the comment:

          You have to trust someone with these communications, there is no free communication beyond face to face

          the oh-so-clever smart alecks saying “whaddabout ISPs???” forgot about 2-way radio and meshnets

    • cum
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      71 month ago

      Not true at all lol, have you heard of peer-to-peer?

        • @9tr6gyp3
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          191 month ago

          Wait until you find out about internet service providers

          • knightly the Sneptaur
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            141 month ago

            You can have more than one dumb pipe to push bits through, but if the ISP can read your network traffic then you have bigger problems than a single-point-of-failure.

            • @9tr6gyp3
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              21 month ago

              Do you have more than one ISP?

              • knightly the Sneptaur
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                51 month ago

                I’m very lucky in that regard. Not only do we have a local ISP and mobile service from a national carrier, but the electric co-op that provides our power just ran 2.5Gb/s fiber through the neighborhood and lets members use 200Mb/s on it for free.

              • @Aux
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                31 month ago

                Who doesn’t?

          • @[email protected]
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            21 month ago

            For the most part the ISP doesn’t have a way to know you are using VoIP to contact people in a particular country (unless you are using a VoIP service owned by the ISP of course).

        • sunzu
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          21 month ago

          Threema is what signal should have been.

          But I ain’t got in me to start forcing people again lol

          Signal it is until it is proven untrustworthy

          • @Zachariah
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            31 month ago

            Yeah, they’re both good (still).

            features Threema Signal
            price $5 / 5€ Free
            account creation phone number optional phone number required
        • @[email protected]
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          51 month ago

          They didn’t fuck up, they made a design choice about the scope of the app. Are they also fucking up by not blurring the messages on screen? After all someone could be looking over your shoulder without you realizing it. Maybe Signal should ship with spyglasses.

          • @[email protected]
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            71 month ago

            You’re absolutely right and it’s insane I keep coming across these wild takes from people that clearly don’t understand technology

          • Flying Squid
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            -11 month ago

            I’m not sure why you think anyone would want a messenger that touts itself for its encryption to not encrypt things.

              • Flying Squid
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                -31 month ago

                Then it’s weird they are fixing it now. Why aren’t they insisting this doesn’t need to be dealt with because it was a feature, not a bug?

                • @[email protected]
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                  71 month ago

                  It’s weird that apps sometimes change scope and add features that users want? Ones that contributers already did most of the work for?

                  Why aren’t they insisting this doesn’t need to be dealt with because it was a feature, not a bug?

                  That was literally what they have been saying this whole fucking time.

                  “The database key was never intended to be a secret. At-rest encryption is not something that Signal Desktop is currently trying to provide or has ever claimed to provide,” responded the Signal employee.

                  • Flying Squid
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                    -11 month ago

                    Did they make an intentional design choice which users should have been okay with like you said the first time or is this a feature users wanted? It can’t be both.

                • subignition
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                  11 month ago

                  It’s really fucking annoying how relentlessly you pick fights with people these days. Wish you’d chill out dude.

                  • Flying Squid
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                    -11 month ago

                    Or I’m just speaking my mind and you don’t agree.

                    And aren’t you picking as fight with me right now?

        • cum
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          31 month ago

          Damn that’s bad, and Signal’s response was even worse. They knew about it in 2018, for 6 years.

          • sunzu
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            -11 month ago

            I always felt like signal is there more to satisfy a niche so people feel like their whatsapp is good enough.

            Leadership makes some odd chocies IMHO

          • Flying Squid
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            01 month ago

            That wouldn’t shock me, but he was right that Signal was not addressing a known vulnerability. In fact, denying that it even was a vulnerability.

            For what it’s worth, I trust Telegram even less than Signal. And at least Signal seems to be finally doing something about the problem.

    • @grue
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      41 month ago

      This is what net neutrality and anti-trust laws are for.

    • Todd Bonzalez
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      21 month ago

      You can run your own infrastructure.

      Matrix has been recommended, but you can run your own Synapse server and federate with other servers.

    • themeatbridge
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      -21 month ago

      This is exactly what they want you to believe.