NSA good guys

dan at geer.org dan at geer.org
Tue Apr 15 14:55:40 PDT 2014


All the whining about NSA is just that, whining, by comparison to
where COTS is going.  The COTS folks are surpassing national labs
in the reach of their traffic analysis, they just don't yet have
the command structure.  (They'll get one when they're deputized by
the national labs of whatever country matters.)

Consider AAPL's iBeacon.

--- consumer market prepositioning drives tracking rollout ---
http://www.pfhub.com/apple-inc-s-aapl-ios-leaps-ahead-of-googles-android-in-the
-new-world-of-beacons-542
> The iBeacon is spreading rapidly in a number of spheres, including
> retail, sports arenas, museums, and possibly even the home. An even
> more crucial factor, however, is how many devices running a given
> operating system are beacon-ready. iOS devices are 82% beacon ready,
> according to a report today from Patently Apple, while Android
> devices are only 2.5% beacon ready.
>
> Being successful in the world of beacon technology draws the
> business of huge retailers with deep advertising budgets, with a
> potential windfall of cash when these companies pay for access to
> both beacons and the server space that backs them up.

--- turning it off is a useful illusion ---
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5594
> You must enable Location Services on your device and give your
> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5594 permission to each app or website
> before it can use your location data.  In iOS 7, if you turn off
> Location Services and use Find My iPhone Lost Mode, Location Services
> will be re-enabled on the device as long as the device is in Lost
> Mode. Once Lost Mode is disabled, Location Services will return to
> its previous state.
> 
> Note: For safety purposes, your iPhones location information will
> be used for emergency calls to aid response efforts regardless of
> whether you enable Location Services.

--- everybody's ass is covered in layers of boilerplate ---
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6048
> Note: If you allow third-party apps or websites to use your current
> location, you agree to their terms, privacy policies, and practices.
> You should review the terms, privacy policies, and practices of the
> apps and websites to understand how they use your location and other
> information.  Information Apple collects will be treated in accordance
> with Apple's Privacy Policy.

--- standards, schmandards ---
http://www.mobilemarketinguniverse.com/bluetooth-beacons-vs-wifi-vs-nfc-2
> After Apple choose BLE as standard rather than NFC/RFID, we believe
> that the two winning technologies in North America will be Wifi
> and BLE whereas NFC still has a good chance in the rest of the
> world.


--dan




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