Comment by gruez
1 day ago
>A finger slip, a bug in a Windows update, or even a cosmic ray flipping the "do not upload" bit in memory, could all lead to the key being accidentally uploaded.
This is absurd, because it's basically a generic argument about any sort of feature that vaguely reduces privacy. Sorry guys, we can't have automated backups in windows (even opt in!), because if the feature exists, a random bitflip can cause everything to be uploaded to microsoft against the user's will.
Uploading your encryption keys is not just "any sort of feature".
You're right, it's less intrusive than uploading your files directly, like a backup does.
On the contrary: a backup can be fully encrypted by a key under the user's control that isn't available to the storage provider.
I’m still pissed about the third+ time one drive ‘helpfully’ backed up all my files after I disabled it.
So that may not be a great example of you’re trying to make people like Microsoft.
What part of "We can't have nice things" do you not understand?
The part where you're asking me about the phrase when it's not been used anywhere in this thread prior to your comment.
>This is absurd, because it's basically a generic argument about any sort of feature that vaguely reduces privacy. Sorry guys, we can't have automated backups in windows (even opt in!), because if the feature exists, a random bitflip can cause everything to be uploaded to microsoft against the user's will.
This is a dismissal of an objection to a software system implemented such that it performs in a discrete manner by default(no info leaves until I explicitly tell it to; this would be a nice thing, if you hadn't noticed). You repudiate the challenge on the basis of "we want to implement $system that escrows keys by default; a bad thing, but great for the company and host government in which said thing is widely adopted).
You may not have used the exact words; but the constellation of factors is still there. We can't have nice things (machines that don't narc, do what we tell them, etc.) because there are other forces at work in our society making these things an impossibility.
It is regrettable you do not see the pattern, but then again, that may be for the better for you. I wouldn't wish the experience of seeing things the way I do on anyone else. Definitely not a fun time. But it is certainly there.