What is SFOS’s official stance on client side scanning? Either running checksums on my files and comparing them to known illegal materials or intelligently analysing my camera gallery and message content before transmission.
Obviously this isn’t desirable from a privacy and security standpoint but what if the EU or UK government mandates it? As FOSS software we could remove that component individually but what if it becomes hardware defined or otherwise compulsory? The EU requires all computers sold with operating systems to enable certain power saving features by default. Linux is not exempt.
Would or could SFOS receive this in a forced update? Would my phone become illegal to possess? Could customs prevent delivery? Would my phone stop working if I use a community build to remove state mandated spyware?
I’m curious to see how governments can force compliance. In the USA they hold software companies liable for misuse unless they utilise government approved preventative technologies. Running Linux makes us immune to these changes but a Linux distro is also the only officially sanctioned operating system of North Korea.
There’s not even a mechanism for forced updates so you would have to install the spyware yourself.
It could, of course, be hidden in a regular update but that would also be the end of Jolla.
This is the part which worries me. Signal have stated they would leave the EU over compulsory client side scanning. Decentralised projects don’t have anyone to sue or convict. But Jolla is based in the EU. The UK government is considering legislation to mandate age verification before allowing users to download VPN applications or take nude selfies. This would directly contravene Jolla’s privacy stance and the open nature of free software.
I think manufacturers could get around it by shipping phones without an OS. What the end customer does with their own device is up to them, as it should be. F-Droid can’t ask for ID so they would be banned or voluntarily withdraw from the UK. I wish my government wasn’t so ignorant to consider such a law but we already have the Online Safety Act. They are stupid enough to ban Wikipedia so who knows what they’ll try next.
If what I have read online is correct, no client-side scanning will be mandated in the EU anytime soon.
The UK is not part of the EU, so even if the UK government mandate this, what are they supposed to do to Jolla?
Shake their fists in anger?
Confiscate Jolla phones in the mail?
Nothing a £15 Ryanair flight to France would not fix.
On the way back you might have to hide the J2 in your underwear, though.
Even if enacted in the EU, this would not apply to Jolla. It is for providers of messaging services, such as Signal as you mentioned, or Telegram, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and the like, that allow encrypted communications that are not accessible to the authorities.
Jolla isn’t a provider of such services. SMS or MMS are not concerned, because they are already accessible to the authorities under control of their judicial system.
I felt momentarily better after reading these responses then remembered the UK government is really very stupid. They want to ban so called ‘nudification apps,’ which necessitates extremely invasive technology. I haven’t had a regular app store in several years and so never came across these things.
The problem is they aren’t just talking about banning scummy programs from app stores but putting tech on our phones to make sure we aren’t doing anything illegal. There is a big difference. As an adult I would need to verify 18+ status or my phone won’t even take a nude selfie – never mind transmit it.
I’ve heard Microsoft has been deleting pirated videogames from personal computers. I don’t take selfies or pirate videogames but false positives worry me. My phone uses GrapheneOS but in 6 months when my Jolla arrives UK customs could refuse it at the border.
I’ve never tried but I’m pretty sure Stable Diffusion could be used to nudify an image. CivitAI has already left the UK market and that was before the UK declared war on software. I will always be able to use these programs but don’t want to be criminalised. Crossing borders with a freedom phone will become difficult and the onus will be on me to prove that I’m not a criminal.
For now I can use my VPN and zero telemetry operating systems. But after they mandate ID to download a VPN client they will move on. Next stage will be ID to install Linux since free software doesn’t ask for ID before downloading VPN technologies. Then they will have to ban encryption and eventually realise I’m using PGP to manually encrypt text messages. This will result in random spot checks in public places. I’ll put Cleopatra in a hidden folder or partition. They will notice and finally ban anything that isn’t an immutable state approved OS on devices with a locked bootloader.
In practice none of these laws will affect me whatsoever. The Online Safety Act is barely an inconvenience and I’ll always be two steps ahead of their legislation. Fundamentally I don’t do anything immoral with my computers and they couldn’t detect or prevent me even if I did!
I woke at 4am today having nightmares about phones. I was on a hillfort with two other people in the dark while thousands of Taylor Swift fans surrounded us and turned on their phone flashes in unison. The light was blinding and outshone our bonfire. I barely even use my own phone but everyone else does. I don’t have a choice. They are ubiquitous around me. My government is imposing digital ID. In ten years it will be required to use public transport. Cash will be banned. Digital currency only. No face coverings. Biometrics everywhere. Know your customer laws for basic necessities. To this day we have actively enforced TV licences.
This forum post will be analysed by more bots and AI scrapers than humans. How could this happen in such a short period of time? I can’t stand it. My typing style will be fingerprinted and stored for future reference. Government funded private sector AI surveillance cameras will identify my limited edition orange Jolla case and know I’m not a sheep. Then they will start asking why I don’t have a government approved hairstyle and refuse to applaud our dear leader Sir Skynet.
This sounds like the friend ot the friend of my brother said, because no, windows wont just delete files from your pc, but if you use a virus scanner, the exe may be moved into quarantine
It appears to be a myth perpetuated by the EULA and fact that some pirated software contains viruses as the other commenter noted. It stands to reason that virus infested pirated games have been quarantined and misattributed to Microsoft protecting software licences.
What concerns me is that an illegally obtained game could be byte for byte identical to a legally obtained one. GOG offers DRM titles which can be freely distributed without obstacle. This would constitute a breach of their license but that doesn’t matter to pirates. Microsoft have no idea whether I paid for those games or not. Downloading and launching GOG games doesn’t even require their proprietary launcher so there is no reason to modify the EXE.
For the record I don’t condone piracy or using Microsoft products. I do believe in storing copies of physical media you already own for backup purposes but piracy is veering slightly off topic. Preventing breach of license isn’t what I had in mind when starting this thread.
What you mean is practically a checksum verifying feature as Apple was doing it. In general there would be no problem with it, as they are checking for blacklisted checksums of forbidden content. But you never know what they are finding while searching…
Imagine if a whistleblower documenting Apple’s inhumane labour practices was exposed by that process. The checksum for an evidentiary document could show up on their iPhone or iMessage during routine scanning. Somehow the whistleblower has ‘an accident’ and their iCloud is wiped.
