Feds tell major internet service providers to decrypt and hand over users' account passwords

How many people do anything within the confines of their ISP. I have comcast, I don’t use their mail client, and haven’t entered a password in years, I truly have no idea what the user name even is on the acct…

Which has not happened. The entire point of keeping passwords hashed is that you don’t have the actual password.

So this would be like the Facebook security thing, right? Demand something ridiculous, spark outcry, fall back to a “reasonable” position but still not quite back to where you started?

Demand a mile, take an inch. Do it often enough and you’ll get the mile by default.

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I…

…I…

Okay, I should just abort this post, because I can’t think of anything except variations on “what the fuck, US government?” I admit to Godwinning this, but I think I’m not entirely out of line when I wonder at what point we suddenly hopped over to the parallel universe Earth where Germany actually did win the war enough such that we actually all are speaking German and the STASI is not just a historical phenomenon.

Congratulations, America, the 9/11 terrorists predicted exactly how you, and by extension your most paranoid and nosy branches of government, would react to the slightest rocking of your boats. Habeas corpus was a nice experiment and freedom of the press served its purpose. You’ve literally done all the work for them.

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The nice thing about this is it will give focus to the poor teams in the Chinese government hacking agencies. They’ve been a little fuzzy about how to achieve their objectives; this will sort that out.

No, that would be another reason not to do it. Because then instead of running a risk that someone might get hold of plain-text customer passwords and mis-use them, you have very strong evidence that someone with the means and highly suspicious motives intends to.

That postulates a situation where you have any recourse to refuse. Obviously if in a few years the US completes its transition to corporate fascist police state without any serious resistance from the electorate or the judiciary, the best plan might to get the fuck outta there.

Same. In fact, I can’t change any settings on Crapcast’s webpage when I pay my bill because I have no fucking idea what my Crapcast email address or password are.

IE, until the Feds decide to prosecute for ‘obstructing justice’ or some other made up or secret charge.

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