I do this always. It’s the “I’m not a threat” thing. I prefer the discomfort or personal inconvenience to being seen as a threat or even causing anxiety in that direction. Maybe it makes no difference, that’s fine, maybe they think I’m weird, also fine as long as it has the intended effect of getting across that I am not a threat. It’s worth it for the times it does matter.

You even called it out as an uncomfortable question. You’re as far from wrong here as one can be. I hope your sister comes around and can have an equally uncomfortable conversation with her husband.

Given that they are serious, though, and the subject, maybe they should be taken deadly seriously.

Report them to ICE?

All good, thanks for clarifying! Yeah, the warrantless searches the government thinks they can do, along with the ability to change the rules to target anyone they don’t like, means that everyone is now in a “highly targeted by the CIA” scenario. At least, I’ve updated my threat model, and I’m ready to nuke everything at the first kick on my door. I don’t have anything to hide, but I also don’t plan to give anyone anything without my consent.

And the point of my original comment is that encryption alone will not save you; please go read the thread from the start. All I’ve been saying is that sometimes destroying the data before an imminent breach, like this tool does, is the only way to be sure you haven’t been breached. The person I responded to clearly thinks encryption would be enough and this tool is unnecessary even in the event of a breach, as does every response after, including yours, and that is simply untrue. Encrypt, and consider using this tool or one like it. Like you said, hammer + nail (though that isn’t a guarantee 😋).

Uh-huh. Scenario: you’re breached and your encrypted data is exfiltrated. Please describe the update process for the encryption of the copy the attackers now hold.

Your encryption might take the age of the universe to break with current computing hardware, but we wouldn’t be having this conversation if vacuum tubes were still a thing. 1024-bit DKIM used to be the gold standard, now it’s unusably weak and 2048-bit is king, due to advances in computing hardware.

Are you really going to bet we don’t make faster computers in the next 20 years? Or that you’ll be aware an adversary can break your encryption the instant they have the capability?

Encryption is just locks and since locks can be opened it must be assumed they will be. For sensitive data, destruction is the only option.

But yes, also encrypt your darn data.

We let them call themselves that. Just stop respecting their self-identification, they’ve basically abdicated any right to our respect anyway by breaking the social contract.

maybe it will finally convince some voters

Lol. Lmao, even. That was a smile I needed this dark and dreary day, wry though it may have been.

Hopefully, some folks smarter and more capable than me can figure it out.

I have some terrible, chilling news for you: nobody is that much smarter or more capable than you. We’re all in the same boat, looking at each other with raised eyebrows while the screeching gibbons some other arsehole put in charge throw their own shit at each other instead of doing their supposed jobs. Some of the crew have tried bailing out the bilge or correcting course to avoid the impending iceberg, but then they get hit by gibbon shit with startling accuracy. Everyone’s varying levels of worried, nobody has any answers.

edit: sorry, allowed myself a little fun with the analogy. It’s a dark morning. I don’t think some extraordinary hero is going to come fix this, though.

You’re the one saying it’s reasonable to expect a reset of the warranty on every repair. I just said why that’s not reasonable; your follow-up here makes no sense.

If you’ve ever fixed an issue with the family PC, and then had a relative call 6 months later because “what did you do, it’s broken”, you’d understand exactly why warranty isn’t offered on warranty repairs.

Thus continuing the work COVID started and further reducing the voting bloc the right relies on to get elected… right?

More like all our joints decay rapidly under the added stress, and we end up with crippling arthritis and an early grave. But maybe some generation of our descendants would be Bulrathi or Klingons or something, after some adaptation!