Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
On 7 February 2021 I’m deleting WhatsApp from all my devices and using either Signal or, as my second choice for now, Telegram. You’ll have to find me there. Here’s why.
Continue reading “Why I’m moving off WhatsApp to Signal and Telegram”
Australia is opening a new campaign in the seemingly never-ending Cyptowars. This time, the target is end-to-end encryption.
Our favourite attorney-general, Senator George Brandis QC, wants “the cooperation of companies like Apple and Facebook and Google and so on” to help the government break into encrypted communications. That cooperation would presumably extend to messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and so on.
And cooperation would be ensured, thanks to new legal sanctions.
Brandis says he’s not interested in putting mandatory “back door” access into the encryption used by messaging platforms. But how can that be true when he’s asking for the tech companies to be able to provide access to customers’ encrypted messages? That’s exactly what a back door is.
Anyway, this morning I was interviewed on this topic by Fran Kelly on the ABC’s RN Breakfast. We spoke for more than seven minutes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.9MB)
The audio is ©2017 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is being served directly from the ABC website.
For more analysis, try George Brandis’s salvo in cryptowars could blow a hole in architecture of the internet, by the Guardian’s Paul Farrell.
My week of Monday 17 to Sunday 23 October 2016 was both busy and productive. But this Weekly Wrap is rather late.
I’ll just get on with the facts.
None, but see the next item.
[Photo: Bus Stop Skink, photographed at a bus stop in Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west on 19 October 2016.]
On Thursday, Mornings on ABC 1233 Newcastle noticed that some big businesses in the US had turned off voicemail, using text messaging instead. They also noted that many people had stopped using voicemail personally too.
That led to a conversation on the radio with Rosemarie Milsom, and here’s a recording.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.9MB)
The audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.