Would it be possible to avoid this with a phone running /e/?
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/07/06/france-set-to-allow-police-to-spy-through-phones_6044269_7.html
3 Likes
To escape french police ? Sounds illegal
This is devastating news for democracy in France. I sincerely hope the European Court of Justice will stop this madness.
It’s only a question of time until access to everyone’s phones will be sold on the dark web, police start stalking their exes, France’s freedom of press index will drop significantly, potentially security of all phones may be compromised and make citizens vulnerable to hacking attacks, polititians will be blackmailed and much more.
Whether or not running /e/ will prevent this depends on what technical means they will employ.
If it is something that will be built into the OS, you might be protected if /e/ won’t incorporate it, but you may come under suspicion for evading surveillance.
If it is through targeted spyware such as Pegasus, you are vulnerable with /e/ like with any other Android system since they usually use security flaws that are not yet known or fixed in Android. You can just try to find ways to detect the intrusion.
Moreover, /e/ generally cannot be considered safe against targeted attacks since it has components with known vulnerabilities that are not fixed quickly. The browser was left outdated for several months (I think it’s fixed now), and I think currently the PDF viewer has security flaws and needs to be replaced (please correct me if I’m wrong here). So /e/ is more of an option for someone looking for a phone that’s usable by an everyday user who wants more privacy without corporate surveillance, not necessarily someone who needs security. I do hope we will see improvements in that area as the project grows.
5 Likes
Of course not…
/e/ is not a project that reach security but commercial privacy.
I think subject is not to escape from, but to be protected from/against…
7 Likes
This is an extreme political statement (and not rare here) as much as:
“It’s only a question of time until access to everyone’s phones will be sold on the dark web, police start stalking their exes, France’s freedom of press index will drop significantly, potentially security of all phones may be compromised and make citizens vulnerable to hacking attacks, polititians will be blackmailed and much more.”
Especially after french’s riots.
But it is not my forum, not my project. So good luck !
I think it is a pessimist but technical statement
Privacy life is however the topic of this forum
You mean 1789? 1848? 1871? 1940-44? 1962? 1968? 2005? 2018? 2020? 2023? or some i have forgoten ?
4 Likes
From what I have understood, /e/'s Browser is a Bromite fork.
But Bromite is no more maintained: last version of Bromite is v108.0.5359.156 from December 2022.
No security updates for 6 months for a web browser, whereas Firefox and Chrome have fixed several dozens of vulnerabilities in 2023.
Sorry to say that any /e/ user concerned with security shall not use /e/ Browser.
Topic being closed as it is getting too political and other users are complaining. Pl keep politics out of the forum.
2 Likes