• itisileclerk@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    IDF rules:

    OK things to do:

    • Kill children,
    • Rape women,
    • Kill prisoners,
    • Destroy peoples property,
    • Use iPhone.

    Not OK things to do:

    • Use Android OS
  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    If ever anyone still doesn’t get how Western countries still support Israel despite the populations of those countries widely hating Israel, this shit is why.

    They have blackmail on all our politicians, but moreover they can sell their domestic surveillance spy tools (such as malware) to bad actors (such as the US gov) to spy on their own citizens too.

    Israel is the #1 perpetrator and exporter of fascism and police states.

  • NGC2346@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    The reason for this is because Pegasus is better used on iPhones than Androids and you can flash GrapheneOS on them while iPhones are locked down.

  • adr1an@programming.dev
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    7 days ago

    This can mean anything, it’s possible they wanted just 1 platform so that their expertise is focused. And android being a little more open may have been seen (biased) as a disadvantage (i.e. enemies are more prone to find a vulnerability). We can argue with it. It’s like the counterpart of people thinking that open source is per default more safe because of being open source… It’s a correlation that can’t prove anything…

  • Galactose@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    Oh boy this is great, now we can call iPhone users as zionists, any excuse to demonize Apple People, I’m down for it

    • SSTF@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      The first words of the article:

      So this is interesting. Just weeks after Google’s campaign to promote Android as being more secure than iPhone, the smartphone battle has taken a sudden twist.

      • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Right. Well, if Google says it is more secure, it must be true right?? I mean, it’s not remotely possible that Google has a reason to sell its vict- I mean, customers on its “security”.

  • TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website
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    8 days ago

    The Israeli military has decided to ban Android phones for senior officers

    “Under the expected order, commanders from the rank of lieutenant colonel and above will be permitted to use only iPhones for official communications. The step is aimed at reducing the risk of intrusions on senior officers’ handsets, according to the report.”

    So it seems that Israel (one of the leading country in hackers spies for hire) thinks that there’s a lot « Hezbollah honey pot » that target android device

    • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Israeli company Cellebrite sells a device to extract data from locked phones, both Android and iPhones afaik. So indeed I’m guessing their government knows some stuff about the security of both platforms.

      Fun fact: comments mentioning Cellebrite get immediately shadow-hidden on Reddit, or at least in some of the main subs.

      • kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        In 2021, Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, pointed to several vulnerabilities in Cellebrite’s UFED and Physical Analyzer software that allowed for arbitrary code execution on Windows computers running the software. One exploit he detailed involved the UFED scanning a specially formatted file, which could then be used to execute arbitrary code on the computer running the UFED. Marlinspike wrote that the code could then “[modify] not just the Cellebrite report being created in that scan, but also “all previous and future generated Cellebrite reports” from all previously scanned devices and all future scanned devices in any arbitrary way.”[27] Marlinspike also found that Cellebrite software was bundled with out-of-date FFmpeg DLL files from 2012, which lacked over 100 subsequent security updates. Windows Installer packages, extracted from the Windows installer for iTunes and signed by Apple, were also found, which he said raised legal concerns.[28] Cellebrite responded that the company “is committed to protecting the integrity of our customers’ data, and we continually audit and update our software in order to equip our customers with the best digital intelligence solutions available.”[29] The report by Signal followed an announcement by Cellebrite in 2020 that it had developed technology to crack encrypted messages in the Signal app, a claim the company later retracted and downplayed.[30][31] The announcement by Marlinspike raised questions about the integrity of data extracted by the software,[32][33] and prompted Cellebrite to patch some of the vulnerabilities found by Signal and to remove full support for analyzing iPhones.[34][35]

        Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellebrite

        Sounds like it is just malware to me.

        • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Vulnerable software is different from malware.

          Iirc there was also the part of the story where the exploit for Cellebrite’s thing was included in Signal, and Marlinspike said that data on any device scanning Signal with Cellebrite software would be poisoned.

            • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              I’m guessing things might’ve changed since then, as this story is pretty old. I doubt it that they gotten newer versions of Cellebrite to screw them again.

      • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        They want to be able to perpetually spy on their military officers to keep them in line. Boot out any dissidents or anyone refusing to carry out illegal and genocidal orders.

        Many fascist states like Stalin’s USSR, Nazi Germany, North Korea, etc all have mass spy programs on the most powerful who aren’t the leader.

        It shows perpetual paranoia, which is expected as popular support for Israel has fucking collapsed in most Western countries. They know their time is limited.

      • 418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        I wouldn’t assume any news about technology being used by IDF to be true in the first place. It could just as easily be misinformation.

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Google has decided you cannot turn off Gemini in their newer versions of Android. You cannot install other roms that do either, Google is killing those too. But yea, Apple is the bad guy. Ignore the Google rug pull.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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          7 days ago

          Like most things in contemporary society, we are given the choice between two terrible options, and then encouraged to go all in on one of those terrible choices, or you’re a LOSER.

          Modern life is just Pavlov’s lab.

      • Khrux@ttrpg.network
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        7 days ago

        As much as I don’t disagree, I think the “Apple is closest to Nazism” comment touches on something different. Other massive American companies have awful practices but they don’t care particularly how their way of making money looks. Apple wields a specific aesthetic power that generally dictates a hegemonic uniformity, that strays the line of being to their detriment at times. I don’t think any other big tech company would care in the same way if not for their desire to copy Apple.

        • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          Apple never opened that door. Google did, but they never intended to keep it open. it was there to catch up with apple. they never intended to do any good here. it was there to speed up development and win people over, then after they are already there, google can close the door and screw them all. That’s what’s happening now. It was a bait and switch.

        • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          You actually turned off geminis ability to serve YOU. You never turned off Gemini itself. Google won’t allow that. It’s still running in the background send your data to Google and its advertising partners. Google has publicly stated this is the intended design and they will not allow turning that off.

              • titanicx@lemmy.zip
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                7 days ago

                No. They provided me a nice little button that allows me to disable Gemini, and they have allowed me to opt out of any usage. So again. Show me that it is still active after I have disabled it.

                • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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                  7 days ago

                  I was curious so I searched. This is the best info I could find.

                  https://proton.me/blog/turn-off-gemini-on-android

                  Proton claims that even if you turn everything off, it will still watch in the background because Google is replacing assistant with Gemini. That still hasn’t happened on my phone. I can still use the regular Google assistant, but I feel like I’m not smart enough to evaluate the claims to know whether it is really running on my phone or not.

                  Proton also has a profit motive in making people upset with Google, so I don’t know.

                • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 days ago

                  Let’s say I install a button on your car that flips from “broken” to “fixed” my itself. Anytime you complain something is wrong, I flip that switch to “fixed.” That doesn’t change anything. The switch just tells other things to do something. It doesn’t enforce anything. It’s basically telling Google whether you want it or not, not actually obeying you.

                • asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev
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                  3 days ago

                  No. They provided me a nice little button that allows me to disable Gemini, and they have allowed me to opt out of any usage. So again. Show me that it is still active after I have disabled it.

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          7 days ago

          I’ve lost features that used to work without Gemini, but I believe it is disabled on both my Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 8 I have access to.

          • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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            7 days ago

            Nope, it’s still running in the background. You just turned off its ability to interact with you but can and does still interact with others.

                • bss03@infosec.pub
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                  6 days ago

                  The first one does tell you how to “completely remove Gemini from your smartphone” under that heading. I do not have the Gemini app installed.

                  The second one says:

                  Can you fully disable Gemini on Android?

                  No, and that’s by design. While you can turn off activity tracking, revoke permissions, and even uninstall the Gemini app on some devices, Google is actively replacing its Assistant app with Gemini.

                  But, I’ve also disabled Google Assistant across all applications, so I don’t share data with Gemini/Assistant. I had to lose some features to do so.

                  Overall, your reply serves to confirm for me that I have disabled Gemini on both of my Android devices. Still, I appreciate the links!

                • bss03@infosec.pub
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                  6 days ago

                  Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me either way. There IS a lot of telemetry and other BS that is definitely still on my phone, included in OS updates, and not uninstallable (I can “uninstall updates”, but that would also give me back any security issues). But, I don’t think that it is Gemini, or at least predates that naming convention.

                  To get free of Google telemetry, I’d have to install a non-Google ROM, and I haven’t ever tried that.

                  Telemetry certainly can be abused, and Google should be legally (by regulation) required to provide a simple opt-out. BUT, telemetry really is a fairly normal thing to include in “web-scale” deployments and is primarily used to discover issues that have escaped into production without affecting a testing environment–or, at least, that what the telemetry systems I’ve interacted with as an software developer were for. So, I’m not too worried about non-personalized data collection.

                  EDIT: I confirmed that Google says I have no Gemini activity to delete, so while I’m sure my phone is reporting stuff, it’s not to Gemini.