Snowden Predicts Global iPhone Hack, Records Song (popsci.com) 71
Edward Snowden criticized the FBI for leaving open security holes found in the iPhone, predicting the hack will now become globally available by the end of 2016. "Personally, I think we'll see it by the end of August," he wrote to his two million followers on Twitter, where one British newspaper reports Snowden was also "recently invited into a Twitter private group chat with a lot of teenage girls who didn't know who he was." (Snowden asked them to call him "Ed," and warned them that if they messaged him, the NSA would read their messages.)
Friday Snowden also tweeted a 2013 article about the U.C. Davis police officer who used pepper spray on protesters, writing that the officer was later awarded $38,000 "for his 'pain and suffering'." But Snowden has also been collaborating with French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre, contributing samples of his voice to a six-minute track to be included on an upcoming album. "Technology can actually increase privacy," Snowden says on the track, which is available on YouTube. "The question is: Why are our private details that are transmitted online, why are your private details that are stored on our personal devices, any different than the details and private records of our lives that are stored in our private journals?"
Friday Snowden also tweeted a 2013 article about the U.C. Davis police officer who used pepper spray on protesters, writing that the officer was later awarded $38,000 "for his 'pain and suffering'." But Snowden has also been collaborating with French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre, contributing samples of his voice to a six-minute track to be included on an upcoming album. "Technology can actually increase privacy," Snowden says on the track, which is available on YouTube. "The question is: Why are our private details that are transmitted online, why are your private details that are stored on our personal devices, any different than the details and private records of our lives that are stored in our private journals?"
Frost Pist (Score:2, Funny)
1337 haxor here
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(Snowden asked them to call him "Ed," and warned them that if they messaged him, the NSA would read their messages.)
Careful , Edward Snowden, you know nothing... they're considering using the Assange gambit against you.
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Also to the point if he blew the whistle for our interest or did he do it for shameless self promotion to show how great he is.
Don't be a fucking retard, you are smarter than that.
He would still have been better off by just keeping his mouth shut, yet he didn't.
Re: Shut up Snowden! (Score:2)
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I agree that nothing about this is worthy of the Slashdot front page.
Of course we should expect the iPhone to have security flaws. All software and hardware products likely do! That's just the nature of the beast! Yes, the developers will often try to fix these problems as soon as they're aware, but it's always going to be an ongoing problem.
And the shit about the song or music or whatever is totally irrelevant.
It disappoints me to see so many useless stories like this one on the front page lately when ther
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I agree that nothing about this is worthy of the Slashdot front page.
I respectfully disagree. Most of the "story" is kind of pointless, but a collaboration between Edward Snowden and Jean-Michel Jarre is as "news for nerds" as it gets.
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You're just spouting out the obvious now trying to stay relevant.
It's obvious to you and obvious to me, but it's not obvious to most of those teenage girls on Twitter (let alone most of the readership of the LA Times or the Telegraph). Look outside the tech bubble for a moment and you'll find a lot of people who need the obvious explained to them.
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So you claim that sometime a couple of years ago, you saw that in April of 2016 he would obviously be tweeting about privacy to teenaged girls and collaborating with Jean-Michel Jarre?
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Nobody cares what you think; you aren't special or an expert at any subject matter.
Why would you deny him the right to talk? I agree his tweets are uninteresting, but they as uninteresting as many other people's tweets.
The problem here is that journalists think they need to inform us about everything he says.
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"Look, you did a good thing a long time ago, so thanks for that... but you and your opinions aren't front page worthy. "
Especially when the hack applies to an old version of the iPhone. If the hack does 'spread worldwide' it will primarily affect stolen phones.
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Shut up AC, you're just hoping some of the relevance will rub off on you.
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Ever since the whole snowden thing happened, I've been amazed at how many AC's show up in snowden-related threads. Its really interesting, almost like theres some kind of infowar going on.
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Lol. It must be sweet for them to get paid for their bullshit.
Re: unless you're on the very young side of "teen" (Score:2)
An analysis of the number and distribution of ACs posting by article type could be interesting.
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How does a person manage to not be aware of that?
Speed readers...
Well, certainly jumped the shark looking to stay r (Score:1, Flamebait)
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Hmmm (Score:2)
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Edward Snowden has been messaging teenagers...
Hmmm...
Not the FBIs fault (yet) (Score:1)
First off, the FBI bought the technology from Cellebrite, most likely spending untold millions of tax payers funds. This shouldn't be real news to anyone, it's not the first time the US has depended upon Israeli intelligence to do what they weren't capable of (Betancourt rescue).
So now that the hack has been paid for and sold, someone will leak it for some reason or annother. The prediction is an obvious one, not needing any special talent or insite.
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Supposedly not. Supposedly it wasn't Cellebrite that sold the hack.
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First off, the FBI bought the technology from Cellebrite, most likely spending untold millions of tax payers funds. This shouldn't be real news to anyone, it's not the first time the US has depended upon Israeli intelligence to do what they weren't capable of (Betancourt rescue).
First, there is such a thing as budgets. The FBI cannot just pay "untold millions" for stuff. Second, we know the price: $15,000. Well within the budget.
Second, whatever Cellebrite was selling, wasn't actually used by the FBI.
Kardashian for nerds? (Score:2)
So is Snowden now a celebrity media personality who is famous for being famous and whose every word the /. demographic is supposed to hang?
If so, I didn't get the memo.
War against mass surveillance continues (Score:3, Insightful)
Snowden's social tweets aren't of any great consequence, but media stories about him still play a vital role because the war against mass surveillance of western populations continues.
Without pushback by media and citizenry, our so-called democratic states were on an unhindered evolution from relative freedom to strong and very opaque police states. Snowden's efforts brought some much-needed illumination and public input to the whole area. After all, our governments are supposed to be working on our behalf against the bad guys, and not treating the entire populations of our countries as the enemy.
Some people are expressing boredom about Snowden's social activities. Well that's easily handled, just ignore the stories if you have no interest in them. They still play an important role in the media, because the pressure brought about by his revelations still needs to be maintained. And he's probably trying to have a social life too, which can't be easy in his circumstances.
Disinterest in privacy misreported, misunderstood (Score:2)
Alleged public disinterest in the Snowden revelations and their consequences is misreported and misunderstood. I've only ever seen such claims in forums like /. where people can easily post under multiple handles in an attempt to misrepresent their numbers. The international special meetings amongst heads of state (including Chancellor Merkel's self-centered caring about spying involving her equipment), the rush to encrypt things in internal networks (and to publicize such encryption) and user-facing produc
Copycat Idea (Score:1)