A bill that would allow police in France to spy on suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphone including GPS of their phones has been passed.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    84
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    The US federal government has been doing this since the 00’s. Snowden exposed them and the public responded with hatred towards Snowden. Unfortunately the average citizen just doesn’t seem to care.

    • MiniJungleTroll@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      49
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t think the majority of people KNOW what Snowden was even trying to tell them. I remember when this came out and the news media was clutching their pearls over the act of leaking information rather than discussing the contents. I’m still learning about what was contained in those leaks to this day. It is so heavily propagandized that we need a new word for it.

      • moustique@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s an erroneous understanding of our era. The younger generations are gods at liking and commenting on social networks, but they just don’t care about privacy. They flock like birds to litteral spyware just for a quick meme fix.

        Not everything you think is wrong has to do exclusively with boomers.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          I think it’s a bit of A and a bit of B. Boomers and younger gens have both embraced the rampant violation of privacy, particularly in the US.

    • sadreality@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      37
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Linux and encrypted messengers too lol

      If you don’t share dick pic you sent to your partner with the spooks… You go to the gulag labour camp until you redeem yourself.

    • mycus@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wasn’t a guy convicted on france not long ago and the deciding factor the judge used was because he used linux? WTF is going on there?

    • Toribor@corndog.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 year ago

      Modern hardware is likely exploitable by state actors via firmware/hardware vulnerabilities that can’t be mitigated at a software level.

      • piecat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ya just look at the Intel management engine. Or the AMD platform security processor. Lot of spooky shit like secret op-codes.

        We need more open source HW.

  • cygnus_velum@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    77
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    How is this even feasible on Android or iPhones? Are they going to force everyone to download Team Viewer or something?

        • virgo@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          35
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Well crap, we’re fucked then?

          Title then link

          We are just as fucked as we’ve always been. Hackers use zero-day vulnerabilities. Can’t do too much about that. Any device is hackable. That became clear after Snowden, and the USA hacking irans centrifuge.

          • Gray
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            25
            ·
            1 year ago

            The US hacking Iran’s centrifuges would have been preventable though with careful device management as far as I understand. The worm they used, Stuxnet, didn’t come from nowhere. It either came from a USB that hadn’t been properly sanitized or their systems were connected to an external, unprotected network when they definitely should have been isolated. That’s a preventable virus and unrelated to conversations about backdoors being built into technology for governments to access.

            • virgo@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              ·
              1 year ago

              We dropped a USB stick in the parking lot and they plugged the virus into the system lol

            • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I don’t know that part would have made much difference, they were already air gapped and the NSA probably could have figured out just about any centrifuge: The hard part was delivering the payload, which was apparently delivered via a rubber ducky left in a parking lot.

        • dontblink@feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Can’t we even avoid that by using lineage or graphene? We’re really fucked unless we are like cybersec experts…

      • IAccidentallyCame@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Wonder if Google, Apple, or SoC makera are asked or secretly mandated to leave certain backdoors in. I know mobile providers have quite a bit they can see on their end.

        It’s a good thing we’re always presented with two choices for everything, like mobile OS’s, to control our choices like we’re toddlers.

      • eleitl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        How do you get Pegasus onto LineageOS or GrapheneOS? Especially on hardware with modem isolation?

    • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      ·
      1 year ago

      Everyone causally saying the government can just do it with Pegasus is ignoring the fact that Pegasus itself is an exploit. It is a hack, to breach your personal device. If I used the same methods to get into a bank’s systems it would be a violation of the law. Same if I created this software and gave it to you for the same purpose. Ask yourselves why it would be permissible to sell this software then commercially? And, why is it permissible for the government to use it to hack your own devices. Let’s not just brush over this discussion like it’s nothing.

      • _wintermute@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nobody ignores the fact that government is doing something illegal when the conversation about their rampant spying happens. You may just be late to the party. We all know it’s illegal, unethical, and immoral. It basically comes down to this:

        What are you going to do about it?

        We’re living in objectively dystopian times. Our government does illegal shit literally all the time and gets away with it.

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          What are you going to do about it?

          The very least people can do is talk about it and acknowledge it’s bad.

          Acceptance and normalization support the other side.

          • _wintermute@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            1 year ago

            My generation has talked it to death. It’s pretty agreed upon that we’re being fucked and have very little power to stop it. Eventually you don’t have time to rehash all the heinous shit that happens because you realize there’s a constant deluge of it. Has nothing to do with “supporting the other side” lol. If reality has got you feeling insane, well, you’re on the right track.

                • wtfeweguys@lemmy.whynotdrs.org
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Tangential quote: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. -JFK

                  The fact that things are the way they are by design makes it harder for us to overcome them, but it should also make it abundantly clear it’s on us to do so.

                  I empathize with the feeling of powerlessness. And I encourage reaching past that from time to time to see where action is already taking place that only requires the slightest nudge from you to boost. Many hands make light work when those hands are pushing/pulling in the same direction.

    • Spiracle@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      While this news article is, apparently, not trustworthy, in general, France could demand every phone sold in the country include some kind of spyware. Many sellers already add a lot of programs by default anyway, so this would be how I image it might be implemented.

      Given that 7 people were recently arrested for using privacy respecting tools like the Signal messenger and Protonmail, removing that bloatware/spyware might then be cause enough to arrest you. After all, only terrorists want to have privacy, right?

  • Random_user@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    At least they have the decency to tell you they are doing it.
    In the US it took Snowden to leak this to the public that the government has been doing it for ages behind their backs.

  • Boabab@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    1 year ago

    There is so much news like this coming from France lately. What is going on over there?

    • Tigbitties@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Huge wealth gap. Poor people are treated like shit. They’re are hungry and angry. Historically, the French are quick to protest and the rich are doing what they can to stop it. I believe we’re getting a glimpse of what is going to happen all over the world soon.

  • nbailey
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    The oppression will continue until revolt stops!

    Things didn’t go very well for Ceaușescu, so I’m sure Macron won’t repeat any of the same screwups.

    • nargacu83@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 year ago

      I can’t even reconize my country values for the past few months and yet it’s only the beginning for the current government, we still have 4 years to go with Macron. Who knows what ideas they hold for the future.

  • SafetyGoggles@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    A Google search for “France phone camera” only gives this posted link and dailymail.co.uk article, both of which are not really trustworthy sources, IMO.

    So I’m gonna go with “this is very possibly fake news”.

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      They don’t care about us. We sometimes forget we techies are a tiny fraction of the people they want under their boot.

      If they can’t hack you they’ll get you other ways, if they want you.

      Take solace that people in France and the USA aren’t falling out of windows every other day. Yet.

  • mrmanager@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Nice society we live in. All those sci fi movies was just giving ideas for the people who wants everyone to be under their boot.

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Macron isn’t left wing, even by international standards. He was an investment banker at Rothschild. La Republique En Marche is a centre or centre right party.