[–] 3 points 1 year ago

Using one only because it's super well known? Sure. It can be well known and scummy. But it can also be well known, trusted, vetted, etc.

And you also probably don't want to use one that is barely known as there's the lack of trust, getting, who runs it's, etc.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    The sheer volume of communication data is far too large to monitor everything.

    By people, sure. Run it through a magical analytical algorithm that flags stuff for people to look? Or if that's still too much everywhere, they could focus it on a certain area's towers and process that data. Will it catch everything or not generate false positives? No, it's not perfect, but I could see it helping them and being done.

    I doubt an agency like this would just hoard the info and not proactively use.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    SMS is mostly used for 2-factor authentication, transaction status.

    Which they really shouldn't as it's still in the clear. But banks are slow to change, especially if it costs them money. As for mostly, I think it depends on the region. I think I've read that the US, Canada, and a few (not all) European countries still use SMS.

    I use Signal, which is widely considered the gold standard for E2EE apps, with the client app of Molly specifically (a hardened version of Signal).

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    they overspend by millions

    Because everyone needs their cut.

    either way a military tank is better than a civilian grade sedan.

    Because they're two different vehicles, not two different classes of product. If you compare military grade phones to civilian phones, the civilian would be better, and probably cheaper due to not having the buzzwords attached. And I bet a tank made by a private firm for non-government entities would in fact be better and cheaper than a military tank.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I'm not downplaying it or saying it shouldn't be fixed, but...

    Effectively, due to modifications made to the standard Telephony package left the app open to abuse, allowing any installed application on an affected OnePlus device to access SMS and MMS data, along with metadata, “without permission, user interaction, or consent.”

    Just another vector. SMS is already plaintext/unencrypted, so shouldn't be used unless you're saying something you're comfortable with the world knowing. Switch to E2EE apps

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