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Comment by VagabundoP | Hacker News Reader

The only way this is going to change would be state/megastate level action.

Make selling/using these attacks against government or other users a terrorist level event. Go after the heads of NSO and their like.

I'd say at that point the companies would be absorbed into the national intelligence infrastructure of the host county and cease to be independent entities who can be bought for the highest bidder. And I know NSO is basically like that now, but

I'd love to see some criminal sanctions for things that their software has been used for stick.

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These goons that deal in the spy ware market are actually under the auspices of state.

The state is rotten to the core.

I don't even blame them. The real problem is the lack of philosophy and ethical standards in the tech industry.

Computer Technology is so shallow. Apple for example talks about being a proponent of privacy and at the same time the M1 Computers have built-in terrible spyware that cannot be removed (Apple made sure of this).

Every time I talk about this I am labelled as paranoid or sometimes "stupid". Alot of people simply rationalize this built in spying as "good".

The bitter truth is that we made our bed. Now we have to sleep in it.

Perhaps it's time to establish an actual Professional Engineer board for "software engineers". This could start with the most safety critical systems, embedded life support code, etc. You then get the other engineering codes/standards to require board-certified programmers for these "critical" systems, and that drives the wedge of larger companies being "forced" to hire engineers who are bound to an ethical discipline. They then would have grounds to stand on for pushing back on shady systems.

And this is going to do exactly what to suppress CNE vendors? You don't even know who they are, and many of them operate entirely in jurisdictions that won't care even a tiny bit about professional licensure.

“M1 Computers have built-in terrible spyware that cannot be removed (Apple made sure of this).”

Can you say more about this?

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

Is there a non-schizophrenic version of this article? Nearly impossible to read.

It's hardly schizophrenic, unless you're suffering from the cognitive dissonance of assuming Apple cares about privacy.

But sure, here's a version written by a well-known Apple toady explaining in-detail why this is bad and criticism is warranted: https://eclecticlight.co/2021/08/12/is-apple-keeping-its-pro...

What makes Howard Oakley a “toady”?

What makes Sneak a "schizophrenic"?

I did not claim anything about sneak. I think pxmpxm was trying to say something about the typography or layout of sneak's article, not something about sneak.

Does Oakley writing about Apple products make him an "Apple toady" in your opinion? Or is there something he has written that is apologetic of Apple's behavior? I am asking a genuine question here. If you have no serious answer, that is understandable. I may have misinterpreted your words to be serious.

Virtually every state in the world is a customer of a firm that sells exploit chains and implant stacks, so, no, this isn't going to happen.

Yeah we're not going to stop the state level intelligence services from using these. I'm more concerned about locking out and crimilising the non-state actors and holding the companies libel for their actions.

I think there could be some movement here, but there is certainly a level of protection that national governments are doing for these companies because they want their services.

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