Comment by donmcronald

3 days ago

> And because the app needs to send data over an encrypted channel, it would be difficult at best for a sophisticated person to determine whether their info is being sent over the wire.

Devices are built from the ground up to prevent even sophisticated users from tapping them to verify we aren't being lied to. The average person thinks that "hackers" will mobilize if things get too bad and they're completely wrong.

Tamper proof, encrypted chains of trust start from the second a device gets power and it's infecting everything from appliances to phones to computers. Get ready for a future where your rented toaster has parts serialization that can't be bypassed.

Oh -- how do I ensure that the device is running only the software I installed, with exactly the patches I added, rather than a possibly malicious vendor -- for example, if the local government of the country I'm visiting has a court order for phone vendors to silently backdoor phones, it would be nice to know that only the software I personally signed is running.

As someone that patches their OS on the regular, this would be pretty interesting.