I’m no expert but given the repeated efforts from governments around the world to get backdoors added to encryption and frequent pushback from big tech, or at least Apple, I’m more inclined to think there currently, or recently, aren’t backdoors. At least, not easy ones, not official ones. As an example, recall a few years ago there was a terror-related attack in the U.S. where someone tied to Muslim extremists went on a shooting spree before taking his own life (I’m not bothering to look up the details and my recollection could be flawed). The attacker used an iPhone and the U.S. government took the opportunity of strong public outrage to try to force Apple to create a tool to break the encryption on the iPhone so they could examine its contents. Apple resisted and the effort went to court, with the decision eventually being that Apple did not have to break the encryption. The government then revealed that they had access to a third party tool that they used to break into the phone and recover its contents. That’s pretty much been the pattern before and since: a government will try to find a cause that seems likely to gather widespread support and use that to get a backdoor they promise not to abuse, and the companies push back to varying degrees. All the while there seem to be third party tools that exploit various flaws, including zero-day flaws to gain the access the companies won’t provide. My impression is that at least a couple times a year there’s a story about an Apple security update patching these holes and notifying certain users if they may have been targeted.

It’s possible that’s all just theater put on by the U.S. and allies to help Apple or Google tell governments the U.S. doesn’t trust, “see, we can’t even give the U.S. government we’re subject to access, so we certainly can’t give you access.” Given some of the cases that have been used to try to force access, though, I’m more inclined to think the government really doesn’t have the easy access some might like.

Of course, it’s also possible that some of the flaws used by zero-day exploits to gain access are intentionally planted, either by the software companies or by an individual programmer acting at a government’s behest. The later patches could be to maintain appearances to outsiders, since there always seem to be additional flaws. Still, programming is hard enough and operating systems are complex enough that I’m more inclined to say that usually these really are just human error and not something malicious.

None of that is to say that anyone should fully trust these encryption systems. Used properly, they’re probably good enough against ordinary hackers, people just looking for financial rewards. You can keep your family photos, important records, school notes, etc. on them without worrying too much. Financial records you might want to doubly encrypt, just so they’re not so easy to exploit if there is a breach and data dump. If you’re doing something any government cares enough about to really investigate, they’re probably going to find a way into your computer, phone, or cloud service, depending on how motivated they are. Maybe not some impoverished “third-world” governments, but most of the big ones have some resources. I’d be extremely cautious about things that could actually send someone to jail, either in your own country or one that is less friendly.

There is a website that will redirect to the post on your instance but it looks like I did not bookmark it. I expect someone else will chime in with it.

You’re torrenting from your phone?

These are browser engines, or at least software for rendering HTML but not necessarily the actual browser. I don’t know them all, but top left, Gecko, is the engine for Mozilla, center is Web Kit for Safari, bottom center is Chromium for Chrome, Brave, Edge, etc., and bottom right is Trident, the old engine for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

FYI this article is from June 2024

I was going to ask if this was Mutts, then read your credit and the illustration is by the creator of Mutts!

I’d kind of forgotten about this one. I’ve seen much less coverage about it than about the Intuitive Machines and Astrobotics launches last year.

Typically somewhere between 15-20%. I do a rough mental calculation figuring out 10% by moving the decimal, then either double that or figure out what half of that is and roughly add that amount to the 10% amount, then go with a nice roundish number (to the nearest quarter) in that range. Usually a little higher than my rough estimate for 15% if I’m on that low end just so my rough math doesn’t inadvertently shortchange the server.

I make my calculation based on the total with tax included. I know some people go on the pretax amount.

BONUS: If I’m doing a delivery service like DoorDash, I look up my distance to the restaurant and make sure the tip is always at least equal to the mileage. I used to drive for them and $1/mile was always my minimum. DoorDash at least would typically only kick in $2/delivery, unless there were bonus promos. Since the driver might not be at the restaurant I figure that’s probably enough to get them to the restaurant, then the tip will get them from there to me. Actually, at home my house is several miles from any restaurants, so I usually go $4 above that to make sure the driver doesn’t lose money getting back to civilization. If I’m at a hotel close to restaurants I won’t necessarily do that. If it’s something where I’d like to try to get the best service I’ll go higher; they typically offer the highest pay orders to their top rated drivers first.

I guess Lemmy.World hadn’t connected yet or there was no content last time I tried

Is that [email protected] ?

I got free tickets at work to a soccer game 3 hours away between two major European teams. Got to the stadium and discovered when I parked the car that I’d left the tickets at home.

It’s one thing I really appreciate about digital tickets on my phone.

I guess Pope Francis is in declining health for this to be posted?

Are they going to take the Amazon Kindle route? Pay one price for the car or pay a lower price for the car that shows you ads? Not that the car makers would use it to lower the price of the cars, but raise the price of ad-free cars I’m sure.

Yeah, at least the last couple have longer support periods now, but at the time my Pixel 2 stopped getting support it looks like the Pixel 5 (then the newest model) was only expecting 3 years. It might entice me to switch back at some point.

That explains why when I looked at Graphene later it didn’t support the Pixel 2

It was the single biggest reason I switched to iPhone. Usually I was dying to upgrade after 2 years because the phones would start to suck. Then I got a Pixel 2 and it was great! But after 3 years it stopped getting updates even though the hardware still worked fine, and I looked over at my stepdaughter’s iPhone, which was 6 years old but still getting updates, could still get parts replaced at a local repair shop. It started to feel like that was the better value as flagship phones started costing $800+.

I suppose there’s a reason a Brit wrote 1984?

Your website hasa banner that says it uses cookies and that by using it I acknowledge having read the privacy policy, but if I click More Information it takes me to a page the wiki says want created yet.

Private messenger using something like Briar in a protest environment?

I saw someone a few months ago whose blog could be subscribed to like a Lemmy community and replies in Lemmy would show up as comments, but I think that was a Wordpress thing.