this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1874605

A 17-year-old from Nebraska and her mother are facing criminal charges including performing an illegal abortion and concealing a dead body after police obtained the pair’s private chat history from Facebook, court documents published by Motherboard show.

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[–] phillaholic@beehaw.org 111 points 1 year ago (4 children)

We need to be clear here. Don't hate Meta/Facebook for complying with a legal search warrant. That's the law. Hate Meta/Facebook for having the ability to hand over private chat messages at all. End-to-End Encryption is the only answer. It's not about trust, it's about the ability.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

End-to-End Encryption is the only answer.

With OpenSource, audited, and user-controlled software.

Any software that could be ordered by a third party (like Meta) to send the E2E keys to the server, while sending all the encrypted messaged through the same server, is not to be trusted.

[–] flux@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

This would be bigger news had they broken WA E2EE. Indeed, the officials might prefer not to disclose the capability if they had it and this wouldn't have happened. (Except, maybe, via parallel construction.)

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That's the law.

Yeah, I don't buy that, not when you have the obscene money and power that Meta has. They could have fought it and resisted, but they didn't. This is the same company that literally just stole a trademark and absolutely nothing meaningful happened to them because of it.

[–] SafetyGoggles@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You don't buy that it's the law?

not when you have the obscene money and power that Meta has. They could have fought it and resisted,

What you're saying is because Meta is rich, they don't have to obey the law?

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What you’re saying is because Meta is rich, they don’t have to obey the law?

Anyone who's rich in America doesn't have to obey the law. That's not a matter of opinion. There's a clear and observable imbalance between the rich and poor in regard to the outcomes experienced in the American justice system.

[–] SafetyGoggles@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, that is what is happening. But that's not what I'm asking. I know there's imbalance between the rich and the poor in the justice system. What I'm asking is, is that how it should be?

You've accepted that as an acceptable thing that rich people/companies don't have to obey the law, and that rich people/companies obeying the law is a bad thing? Because what you've said above is that because Meta is rich, so they shouldn't obey the law.

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[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They could have said okay here you g… oooops jeez it’s gone. Wow how did that happen. Oh well.

They’re a branch of the government at this point. Call it investing in avoiding the kind of scrutiny they should have been under the moment they started psychological experiments on the public.

They admitted to it but I don’t see Zuck the fuck in jail do you?

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure there were plenty of strategies, but we all know that the justice system for a mega-corporation in America is way, way different than the justice system for a poor or middle class individual, so it's laughable to me that anyone would look at this scenario, shrug, and pretend that Meta didn't have any recourse in order to do the right thing.

[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah it’s not even a discussion whether they could fight something like a subpoena, and even companies that would like to sometimes can’t afford to do it. But Facebook practically works for them, they seem to have some kind of arrangement behind the scenes - if not an out and out partnership. They are glad and willing always to provide the government with everything they ask for.

Maybe this is how Zuck the schmuck has stayed out of jail for the shit he’s done; maybe he’s worth far more being their espionage tool.

Between them and Amazon just collecting data and handing it over to any TLA that wants it.

[–] dan@upvote.au 9 points 1 year ago

Facebook supports E2E encrypted chats but you have to enable it, similar to Telegram. Whatsapp uses E2EE by default.

[–] h3ndrik@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hate american legislative / politics instead? Don't hate the player, hate the game?

You're right. e2ee is a good thing.

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get very frustrated with the people who side with the govt here because it was a 7 month foetus. Just because it is 7 months rather than 5 or 6 doesn't suddenly mean the government should be able to coerce the use of someone's body as an incubator against their will.

Feels like people just don't give a shit about bodily autonomy and such :/ nya

[–] astromd@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I think the argument is that at 7 months that’s a viable human and it has rights on its own.

[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It doesn’t have rights until it slides out of the vagina or cesarean section. Until that moment it’s none of anyone’s business but the mother.

And it’s not the government or Facebook or any fucking one else’s place to criminalize this, or to presume to have a right to have any say in the matter.

I’m a male white democrat but I don’t even lean as far left as many fellow liberals. I’m close to left center. Nevertheless, it astounds me how many people put a line where the baby “could” potentially survive. So what? It’s still in the mother’s body it’s still part of her body. And it’s nobody else’s right to have any say about it whatsoever - except arguably a minor vote to the father, a little bit. But ultimately this whole criminalization is not about life at all, but about politics and economics.

[–] KlausVonLechland@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a separate discussion on its own as for some 1 second old human is one with their own rights. But then in Belarus there is a lot of things that are illegal and we consider normal, like saying your leader is corrupt. Should META comply just because it is local law?

At the end of the day it seems we just can not trust anything that isn't encrypted.

[–] rs5th@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jumping in here to say that I don’t feel like the Technology community is the right place to have the debate on the gestational limits for abortion. Let’s keep the focus on technology please.

[–] KlausVonLechland@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

That's true but that's the problem with technology where law is involved is always the same, law is made by people and their opinions, gestation limit is just secondary thing here really and I wasn't interested in discussing that (I'm strongly pro-choice but as someone said... "We live in a society").

Facebook will also open and hand out your private messages in many other cases, I remember this case about drugs and whatnot: https://www.govtech.com/public-safety/warrant-for-encrypted-facebook-messages-causes-privacy-worry.html but I don't know how this specific case ended.

What is worth to note is at the start they give the justification as fight against cartels, exploiters and terrorists but if that is their concern the law should be pointing out these 3 specific things and not used to catch teenagers smoking weed. And also how words like "encryption" and "security" and "private" turn out to be nothing more than marketing buzzwords.

Funny how abuse of power by the state makes normal people move to the apps used by "shaddy people" for extra privacy only to get in fact the normal level of privacy a normal person would expect to get.

I think we should first change the law and using end-to-end encryption is only stopgap measure.

In Poland Pegasus was simply used by ruling party to hack phones of the people they don't like: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-mayor-targeted-by-pegasus-spyware-media-2023-03-03/

How you can even defend yourself against this? From thechnological standpoint we can try this or that but encroaching legislative changes will sooner or later push us against the wall. At the end of the day if law allows they will phisically take your device and phisically make you give them access and even if you install killswitch they simply will make it illegal and give you 5 years just for having it on your device.

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[–] AccidentalDavid@lems.app 54 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The elimination of Roe has brought many states back to the stone ages…

For all we know these girl could have been raped by a family member, or other bad actor and the mother was just helping the only way she knew how.

I am sure this was extremely scarring and emotional for the mother and daughter, and now the state wants to charge them for murder…

[–] andrew@radiation.party 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The baby was aborted at 7 months- it was very close to being a fully formed babby, a far cry from aborting in the first couple months.

Afaik abortion at that stage was already illegal in many areas.

[–] Starya68@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago

Funny how everyone in this thread knows exactly how healthy that foetus was.

[–] dan@upvote.au 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

formed babby

it was on the news this mroing

[–] andrew@radiation.party 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A mother in ar who have kill her too kid.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

They should do way instain mother’s

[–] AccidentalDavid@lems.app 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah shit my bad I did not realize that from the article! I take part of it back hahah.

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[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The state this happened in didn’t change their abortion policy when roe v wade was appealed though.

I’m pro abortion, but not at 28 weeks. A baby can survive at 28 weeks. Not only did they cause an abortion, they then illegally disposed of a dead body.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm for abortion in emergencies, such as any time an expectant mother feels like it's necessary. Women are not mindless incubators and shouldn't be treated like them under the law.

[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No one is saying they’re “mindless incubators”, but “I want to fit in my jeans again” isn’t an “emergency” and doesn’t give them the right to take drugs to abort a baby that could survive out in the world at its age.

Just so we’re on the same page here - you feel that a woman should be able to abort a 39 week old baby?

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just so we’re on the same page here - you feel that a woman should be able to abort a 39 week old baby?

I support abortion in all circumstances. The rights of the woman supersede that of the fetus, period.

And yes, when you infringe on a person's right to abortion, you are relegating them to the status of a mindless incubator rather than a person. I find that much more uncomfortable than aborting an unwanted fetus.

[–] rambaroo@beehaw.org 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of the many, many, many reasons to keep Meta out of the Fediverse if it can be managed.

[–] bankimu@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How do we know that Fediverse will be any different? After all if it is a law and you get a legal subponae, you comply with it.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It probably wouldn't be.

The thing is, Meta has the money and power to fight against injustices like this, but instead, they're complicit, and I'd prefer their corrupting influence stay far, far away from the fediverse.

[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Dude it’s not really called complicit anymore they’re effectively a subsidiary of the government.

[–] SafetyGoggles@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago

Agree. People like to act like Lemmy is a utopia where privacy is always protected and what not. The fact is when it comes down to it, the admins have to comply with the law. If a warrant shows up at their door, they got no choice but to give up information.

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[–] Gumby@beehaw.org 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I work for an agency that works with victims of crime. State and federal laws allow for privileged, confidential communication. We have had people ask for help via social media. This is very concerning.

[–] TheTrueLinuxDev@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would honestly hope you bring it up to your agency to start offering chat channels that are end to end encrypted and have all history wiped clean after certain period of time.

[–] Gumby@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

I shared the article this morning and we have all been discussing this. One option is to request they immediately switch to Whatsapp and delete the FB message. The good part, is that our state coalition is already looking into this.

[–] DJDarren@beehaw.org 19 points 1 year ago

I'm sure this is completely fine.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 19 points 1 year ago

Facebook is a den of depravity and malice. And Nebraska. Thank God I'm not living there, what a waste of taxpayer dollars. They're gonna throw the mom and kid in jail in with the actual rapists, murderers, convicted priests, and anyone else unlucky enough to have had a miscarriage in a backwards state.

If you have the funds, move to a different state like I did. And delete Facebook like I did in November 2016.

[–] Shiftygreen@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is a tough one. Let’s replace abortion with a crime, robbery? If someone stole your grand pappys rolex and talked about it on Meta, I think most would agree that it was proper. If people talked about assaulting someone, most would agree that it’s proper as well. Add a late term abortion into the conversation, it becomes controversial.

Edit*

Others are correct the tech page isn’t the place to debate medical stuff.

I think if a crime is committed via the law, Facebook should comply. If there wasn’t political component, this wouldn’t even be a conversation.

[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Stupid to talk about anything on Facebook.

If it had been phone company turning over text messages then I’d be livid. But seriously who fucking trusts Facebook with that kind of thing? After everything they’ve done that’s been proven why would anyone trust them with an iota of private information?

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not that I’m cool with this, or that awareness isn’t good, but has there really been no new developments and nothing new to say about this in 11 months? Did they get charged? Convicted? Has anyone else faced this issue since then? Facebook hasn’t had a comment since then?

[–] Pseu@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

https://www.ktiv.com/2023/05/22/18-year-old-charged-northeast-nebraska-abortion-case-takes-plea-deal/

The daughter plead guilty, scheduled to Jul 20th for sentencing. The mother is going to trial on the 14th. If convicted, she'll get another sentencing hearing.

[–] pixelpop3@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

The two women told detective Ben McBride of the Norfolk, Nebraska Police Division that they’d discussed the matter on Facebook Messenger

... why would they do that?

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