Hasta La Gadget!

When word broke of the NSA’s surveillance programs earlier this year, major companies named in the leaked documents tried to quash their customers’ privacy fears by issuing statements reiterating their commitment to privacy. Apple did something along the same lines, it said that the encrypting protecting iMessages is so secure that the company itself can’t decrypt it, meaning that even if it receives an order to intercept an iMessage, it can’t. Though earlier this week a group of researchers contradicted this claim and said that the company can read iMessages “if they choose to, or if they are required to do so by a government order.” Apple has now issued a denial.

The researchers from QuarksLab formed a theory about how iMessages can be intercepted, the called Apple’s control over the encryption key infrastructure a weakness and said that the company can change a key anytime it wants, which may result in an iMessage being intercepted and its contents being read. These researchers didn’t say that Apple is reading iMessages, they merely gave a theory which outlines a way that Apple may follow if it wants to read messages. Though Apple says that QuarkLab’s theory is exactly what it is, just a theory. A spokeswoman for Apple said that the iMessage service is “not architected to allow Apple to read messages,” and that the theoretical vulnerabilities described in the theory would require the company to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit those vulnerabilities. The spokeswoman says that “Apple has no plans or intentions to do so.”

Apple Denies Researchers’ Claims That iMessages Aren’t Entirely Secure original content from Ubergizmo.

We already knew that the NSA was collecting a lot of data with its many surveillance tools—like, a lot of data. But new details about the agency’s role in the CIA’s drone program show that they’re collecting incredibly detailed data, too. Detailed enough to catch a terrorist with a single email.

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We’re sure many Americans are very well aware of the NSA and their attempt to make the country safer by watching every little thing we do online as well as through many of our methods of communication, but according to a recently published report, the government agency doesn’t only want to know what you do specifically, but also wants to learn who you talk to as well. (more…)

NSA Collects Millions Of Email Addresses, Buddy Lists Globally original content from Ubergizmo.

According to the latest documents leaked in the Edward Snowden saga, the NSA collects “hundreds of millions” of email and instant messaging accounts’ contact lists globally, including those belonging to individuals in the United States. Additional information on the subject was provided to The Washington Post by unnamed individuals said to be senior intelligence officials. […]

Privacy is on everyones’ minds in the U.S. since revelations about the NSA exploded. You can’t talk on the phone about some casual pot smoking anymore without your friend making the, "Hi NSA!" joke. And apparently for good reason.

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