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posted by takyon on Wednesday February 21 2018, @10:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-you-know-the-huawei dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

The U.S. Intel Community's Demonization of Huawei Remains Highly Hypocritical

We've noted for some time how Chinese hardware vendor Huawei has been consistently accused of spying on American citizens without any substantive, public evidence. You might recall that these accusations flared up several years ago, resulting in numerous investigations that culminated in no hard evidence whatsoever to support the allegations. We're not talking about superficial inquiries, we're talking about eighteen months, in-depth reviews by people with every interest in exposing them. One anonymous insider put it this way in the wake of the last bout of hysteria surrounding the company:

We knew certain parts of government really wanted" evidence of active spying, said one of the people, who requested anonymity. "We would have found it if it were there.

[...] This week, hysteria concerning Huawei again reached a fevered pitch, as U.S. intelligence chiefs, testifying before Congress over Russian hacking and disinformation concerns, again proclaimed that Huawei was spying on American citizens and their products most assuredly should not be used:

At the hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray testified, "We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks." Purchasing Huawei or ZTE products, Wray added, "provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.

Which values would those be, exactly? Would it be the values, as leaked Edward Snowden docs revealed, that resulted in the NSA hacking into Huawei, stealing source code, then attempting to plant its own backdoors into Huawei products? Or perhaps it's the values inherent in working closely with companies like AT&T to hoover up every shred of data that touches the AT&T network and share it with the intelligence community? Perhaps it's the values inherent in trying to demonize encryption, by proxy weakening security for everyone?

Previously: NSA Spied on Chinese Government and Huawei
U.S. Lawmakers Urge AT&T to Cut Ties With Huawei
Verizon Cancels Plans to Sell Huawei Phone Due to U.S. Government Pressure
U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:52AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:52AM (#641564)

    So Mobile App developers should all lose their jobs

    The fact that you can earn money doing evil doesn't make it ethical.

    Both Android and iOS are chock full of proprietary badness.

    Yes, and they're both bad. What's your point? You even seem to admit that it's a bad thing by using the word "badness". So is there even a disagreement here?

    I use the Facebook App to keep in touch with my friends and relatives. I expect that's why most of Facebook's users use Facebook.

    Then you tacitly support a monstrous surveillance engine, making you part of the problem. You are a Facebook used (yes, "used").

    Source code wouldn't be a whole lot of good for the typical smartphone user.

    It's not just about the typical smartphone user; it's about freedom. Some users might want to pay others to make changes to certain software. Some users might want to implement the changes themselves. Some users might simply want to sit back and wait for others to make desirable changes. There are countless ways to benefit from freedom, and just having the freedom to do these things is a good thing.

    Proprietary software necessarily comes into conflict with independence, education, and freedom. If you value those concepts, then you should be opposed to proprietary software on some level.

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 22 2018, @04:46AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday February 22 2018, @04:46AM (#641627) Homepage Journal

    But am opposed to open source

    I read the gnu manifesto well before Eric Raymond figured out how not to soil his diapers

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:47AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:47AM (#641686) Journal

    You are a Facebook used (yes, "used")

    I like the term. What's its plural, tho, "useders" maybe?
    What about the collective noun: herd, flock or mob?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:43AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:43AM (#641708)

      > I like the term. What's its plural, tho, "useders" maybe?

      "Useds".

      > What about the collective noun: herd, flock or mob?

      Hive, if you want to emphasize the "group mind" aspect. "A hive of Facebook useds isolated in their filter bubbles."

      Swarm, if you want to emphasize the sheer numbers and mindless outrage. "The business' good name was demolished by a swarm of Twitter useds."

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:56AM (1 child)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:56AM (#641711) Journal

        > Hive, if you want to emphasize the "group mind" aspect.
        There's no mind in the group

        > Swarm, if you want to emphasize the sheer numbers and mindless outrage.
        What if there's no outrage?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:35AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:35AM (#641756)

          >> Hive, if you want to emphasize the "group mind" aspect.
          > There's no mind in the group

          That's why I put it in scare quotes.

          >> Swarm, if you want to emphasize the sheer numbers and mindless outrage.
          >What if there's no outrage?

          My bad. s/and/and\/or/