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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

The complaint [0] is both very interesting – particularly the details on how sloppy/non-existent Twitter's user-access-control was back in 2015 – and pretty funny, such as how one of the suspects tried to fake a digital document but didn't fake the timestamp, and the FBI noticed the receipt having a creation date the same day of their interview with him (pg 13).

According to one of the suspects' LinkedIn, he left Twitter in 2015, and then worked at Amazon for 3 years in marketing and social media. While I have little doubt Amazon's internal auditing and access control are better than Twitter's, it'd be nice to hear confirmation from Amazon that he didn't access any private user data.

[0] https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/do...

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> such as how one of the suspects tried to fake a digital document but didn't fake the timestamp, and the FBI noticed the receipt having a creation date the same day of their interview with him (pg 13)

It's even better: he typed the fake invoice up in his bedroom while the FBI was in his house, after explicitly asking the FBI not to follow him in there. I can picture the agents looking at each other trying not to burst out laughing.

Is that really that unusual though? Can you think of a situation where not asking the FBI to not follow you around the house would be reasonable?

And why would the FBI assume he was typing the invoice? If you ask me for certain documents I actually possess, depending on the document I might be gone 10 to 15 minutes as well, or even outright say that I need to find it first, I'll bring it to <X>.

I mean, if the FBI drops by for a chat, encouraging them to stick to the living room is probably not unusual. But if you're being asked for a document present in your house that's going to take 10+ minutes to find, inviting the agents along or bringing the relevant folders/computer/whatever to where they are sounds pretty reasonable.

Not necessary, which is obvious from the agents agreeing to this request. But maybe a good way to forestall concerns like "what if they think I'm forging the document right now?"

I think the assumption is if they are "at your door" they probably know you don't have it.

It's funny that the Post failed to convey this information.

Also interesting is on pg 17 where they search through his Apple ID account (notes specifically).

This is the Saudi Arabian dude who has sued twitter https://twitter.com/oamaz7

>While I have little doubt Amazon's internal auditing and access control are better than Twitter's.

You underestimate the power of stupidity of these people.

Tangent, but one of the most interesting things in the complaint -- to me -- was this language:

> Many Twitter users live in Saudi Arabia and some users of Saudi nationality or descent live outside of Saudi Arabia, including in the United States.

It's kind of surreal to use "Saudi" as the demonym for the people of Arabia. "Arab" would be normal. The language is Arabic, the country is Arabia, and those are both named after the people, the Arabs. The "Saudi" in the name of the country refers to the royal house, the House of Saud, and I would expect a "person of Saudi descent" to be Arabic royalty, not just any old Arab.

>It's kind of surreal to use "Saudi" as the demonym for the people of Arabia

Huh? They use it as a name for "people from Saudi Arabia" and it's a very common use.

"some users of Saudi nationality or descent live outside of Saudi Arabia" --> people who are SA nationals/origin and live outside the country.

>The "Saudi" in the name of the country refers to the royal house, the House of Saud, and I would expect a "person of Saudi descent" to be Arabic royalty, not just any old Arab.

Saudi != Arab. If anything, Arab is a superset (and Saudis, if we talk about the nation state and not the ethnicity, are not all Arabs).

But the main point, is that the name Saud is commonly used for the nationals of Saudi Arabia, not just the royals.

Wikipedia: Saudis or Saudi Arabians are a nation composed mainly of Arab ethnic groups who are native to the Arabian Peninsula and live in the five historical Regions: Najd, Al-Hijaz, Asir, Tihama and Al-Ahsa;

Arabia is a peninsula. Qataris, Yemenis and Emiratis among others would not appreciate Saudis attempting to appropriate Arabian to refer to those from Saudi Arabia.

And Arab refers to people from Morocco to Iraq so it’s equally unsuitable.

Exactly, imagine if people of the United States appropriated the name 'American'! I'm sure that every other country in the two Americas would be up in arms!

(It is a joke, laugh).

Some other countries actually use terms like United Statians or North Americans. And after traveling a bit makes the USA's use of 'America' seem arrogant or ignorant.

In italian "statunitense" is used, but probably not as often as "americano".

Canadians might still not be pleased about 'North American'.

I'm guessing you haven't traveled much. American is a virtually ubiquitous term to describe someone from the United States worldwide, no matter which language you're speaking. Countries which have a problem with calling yourself American are a minority, and even then it's usually a small minority of the younger generation.

If you go anywhere within Latin America, you'll find quite quickly that "American" is used to describe someone from the continents, and it's consider very odd to introduce yourself as "American" to a local. You say you're Estadounidense, or "Soy de Estados Unidos" (From the United States).

It's actually a very charged topic in Latin America, as many latinos feel that the word they use to describe themselves has been stolen.

I’m sure every other country with America in its name would be.

well, the complain was about calling Arabs the people from Saudi Arabia.

It was a bit of sarcasm, as it is exactly comparable. Go look at a globe and tell me which other countries have “America” in their name ;)

There are other Arab countries. Most people know what is meant by "Saudi" even if it's technically not correct

It is technically correct, although not official.

Wikipedia: Saudis (Arabic: سعوديون‎ Suʿūdiyyūn) or Saudi Arabians are a nation composed mainly of Arab ethnic groups who are native to the Arabian Peninsula and live in the five historical Regions: Najd, Al-Hijaz, Asir, Tihama and Al-Ahsa;

I think they just mean expats, or dual citizens, or Saudi Citizens living in the US. I don't think they meant the Arab ethnicity.

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