readyplayernull 8 hours ago

> FBI Warns iPhone, Android Users—We Want ‘Lawful Access’ To All Your Encrypted Data

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/02/24/fbis-new-...

  • jauntywundrkind 5 hours ago

    The only people who should have mandatory decryption on all communications are government officials, so that the democracy can be assured of preserving the records required by law.

    Actual decryption of such records should be very difficult, with enormous audit logging.

    I'm terrified what happens to democracy when the people in power are all using Signal. When the president goes around ripping up official documents he doesn't like, or making up read-outs that fabricate a story. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/03/trump-documents-national-arc...

    • sitzkrieg 3 hours ago

      if the government can unencrypt in any capacity whatsoever there is effective zero encryption at play. US are already failing physical audits lol

jmclnx 7 hours ago

The way things are going, I can see the other 4 countries kicking the US out. Or maybe forming their own Org and not feed anything to the US.

  • lucasyvas 7 hours ago

    It’s probably in the interest of NATO, G7, and Five Eyes to not publicly announce removal attempts for the US. That said, at this point they would be silly if they didn’t shadow ban the US and make alternate arrangements without it included.

    Feeding incorrect information to the US is an advantage now, so the US will be made to believe it’s involved.

  • robocat 4 hours ago

    New Zealand bends over for the US.

    I imagine NZ is very unlikely to opt out (even though the US surely snarfs our private data and abuses it to our detriment). This century with modern technology and social media, the US has incredible insight into private NZ information regardless of NZ desires.

    The US monitoring Angela Merkel is the tip of the iceberg.

    I was directly told our intelligence services were given TEMPEST equipment in late 80's or early 90's. That's one benefit of an alliance with the US.

    There was a historical scandal where NZ released a search term NZ had used to gain political advantage over a friendly country. I'm feeling a bit 1984 because I can't find the details at the moment.

    I imagine our intelligence service is quite happy to use XKEYSCORE.

    There's also this quote: "Trying to get out of the Five Eyes is - how can I put it? - it's like trying to get out of the mafia."

    It's not a subject I know a lot about: so my opinions are likely extremely ignorant.

    One of our prime ministers revealed that Australian politicians knew more than most of our own elected politicians in the 80's about the topic of intelligence gathering in NZ by the US.

    Good modern background on NZ's role in the UKUSA agreement: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/pe... which basically says that NZ is just another Pacific Island when it comes to being manipulated by intelligent Chinese interests.

    A bit of background from Snowdon: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/edward-snowden-leaked...

    • AprilisKalends 3 hours ago

      I was always told that Fives Eyes was about each country watching the others backs by doing spying on their citizens that countries couldn't do internally. I remember there was that MP in NZ who was blocked for CCP connection by the US IIRC.

  • dkjaudyeqooe 7 hours ago

    For each % increase in tariffs, reduce sharing by that %.

    • robocat 4 hours ago

      Silly. It's the 0.0000001% of the most valuable data (to the US) that matters.

  • AtlasBarfed 7 hours ago

    I mean, our CIA, DIA, and NSA are so fundamentally compromised, I agree.

    It doesn't matter if the President is or is not some mole agent. Everything he has done in the first two months is a wet dream for Putin. Across the board. Isolate/sever ties with EU and NATO. Threaten allies. Disrupt FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA with mass firings and incompetent leaders. Clear out the military leadership. Threaten Ukraine. Say Ukraine caused the war. Negotiate "peace" without Ukraine. Pro-Putin Musk rooting around with access rights everywhere. Starting trade wars. Disrupt EV/alt energy to extend primacy of petroleum. Cut off funding of Ukraine.

    So it should be assumed that Putin owns the White House and the US intelligence apparatus. Either that, or any intelligence defense is fundamentally compromised.

saurik 8 hours ago

The real question: do we invite another country to take their seat, or do we rename the arrangement to Four Eyes?

  • Finnucane 8 hours ago

    at least there’d be an obvious new logo.

    • dylan604 8 hours ago

      okay, now that's worth doing just for the logo

  • Eddy_Viscosity2 8 hours ago

    Clearly Trump wants Russia to join 5 eyes.

    • dylan604 8 hours ago

      He could just invite Russian operatives to his resort and specify which restroom they should use during their stay. That would have been the much more low key way, but of course 2.0 is about not being low key

      • toomuchtodo 8 hours ago

        He will simply provide StarLink terminals, with a patch cable crossing classification boundaries somewhere internally.

    • dkjaudyeqooe 7 hours ago

      Trump and Putin can have their own and call it something trendy like "My Opia".

chippiewill 8 hours ago

It would be a bit bizarre. The US relies on the UK to do half their domestic spying for them.

  • Rebelgecko 8 hours ago

    Presumably that's why they're asking - doesn't seem like the congressmen like the UK having access to Apple users' data

    • mistrial9 7 hours ago

      there is a theory of real politik that says, when the laws actually touch the lives of the lawmakers, that is when the decision changes.. something like that.. How many US Congress members have iPhones? How many have concerns about others reading their msgs ?

  • dylan604 8 hours ago

    There are 3 other sets of eyes that could pick up the slack.

    • dullcrisp 8 hours ago

      It’s five eyes, not ten eyes!

moonlet 8 hours ago

Pretty sure the other four should just kick the US out at this point

trwahg 6 hours ago

Is this administration using reverse psychology on the Europeans? The way they treat Europe makes Europeans like things they did not like before.

Some Europeans now like nuclear weapons, surveillance, the five eyes, getting real tough on Russia. Sounds exactly like a traditional conservative agenda.

Everything this administration does is a psychological game. Sometimes there are indicators, e.g., today the UN security council rubber stamped the Russia friendly resolution. This may or may not mean that the peace efforts are serious.

(Incidentally: Dear Tulsi, the US has been spying on the EU for decades and has special arrangements like access to all EU SWIFT transactions. But I guess you knew that already.)

drawkward 8 hours ago

>In a letter to the recently appointed US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, senator Ron Wyden of Colorada and representative Andy Biggs of Arizona bluntly ask the administration to kick the UK out of the 65-year-old UK-USA signals intelligence sharing agreement, commonly known as Five Eyes, if they do not now withdraw the demand to Apple.

I want to know where the fuck Colarada is.

Also, Wyden represents Oregon.

  • librasteve 27 minutes ago

    It’s one of the four corner states … Colorada, Arizani, Now Mexico and Utoh

  • Brybry 7 hours ago

    Back when I could actually DM journalists on Twitter about errors in articles they would sometimes tell me that editors introduced the errors without their knowledge.

    For example, an article would mention a county in the US and the editor would add information with county population and state. But the editor would mistake the county for one with the same name in completely different state.

  • 42lux 7 hours ago

    The first sentence reads like an SNL sketch.

AnimalMuppet 7 hours ago

That's the stupidest thing I've heard this month. (Yes, I am aware of what the rest of the month has been like.)

Either these people have no idea how valuable Five Eyes is, or they know but are still willing to destroy it in a temper tantrum or an attempt at a power play. Either way, they need fired yesterday.