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posted by martyb on Monday June 15 2015, @03:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the sylvester-vs.-tweety-bird dept.

According to TechDirt:

It's beginning to look like a US-based encrypted communications platform may be headed for a Lavabit-esque future. As we're well aware, agencies like the FBI and NSA are firmly opposed to encrypted communications, which is something Surespot -- a text-messaging service -- offers.

Surespot has been in the news lately, thanks to terrorist groups utilizing encrypted services to keep their communications secret. UK's Channel Four looked into Surespot and found that 115 "ISIS-linked" people "appear" to have used the service in the "past six months." Because UK 4 wasn't able to get this information from Surespot directly (because Surespot doesn't store personally identifiable information or users' communications), it has only been able to infer this from messages on social media services that refer to Surespot.

What this means in terms of terrorists "flocking" to encrypted apps is still very vague, but there's no doubt any additional layers of secrecy are welcomed by those wishing to hide their communications. What 115 ISIS-linked users means in terms of an installed user base of at least 100,000 is also open for discussion, but it's quite obvious there are plenty of non-terrorists using the service as well.

[..]

George Maschke of Antipolygraph.org has been periodically sending emails to Surespot, unofficially acting as the service's warrant canary. For several months, his questions have been answered. But as of May 25th, he has still received no response to his canned questions.

There's good reason to believe this is true. A recent plea agreement by a 17-year-old Virginia native charged with providing material support to ISIS (via instructions on how to use Bitcoin to provide anonymous donations) specifically mentions Surespot.


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  • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Monday June 15 2015, @08:01PM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Monday June 15 2015, @08:01PM (#196630)

    as I understand it (reading some smart-sounding explanations) the gov cannot compel you to lie. they can compel you to NOT say things but forcing someone to lie is even beyond what the US would currently, in its infinite regression, do.

    this is the point of the canary. its not a lie to say you have had no incidents. if you have had incidents, you are not allowed to say one way or another.

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  • (Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Monday June 15 2015, @08:14PM

    by K_benzoate (5036) on Monday June 15 2015, @08:14PM (#196631)

    I just don't know if we have any basis anymore for believing this. I know it's against the human decency, the social contract, rule of law, and The Constitution, but that hasn't stopped them from doing such things in the past. The Security and Intelligence services are jacked on patriotism and drunk on power. If they're willing to torture and murder people, I don't think anything is too extreme in the name of National Security, in their minds.

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