" Governments have tried to use export controls to limit the proliferation of what they see as dangerous cyber technology for decades, but their track record has been middling at best.

The U.S. government was behind what is perhaps history’s most spectacular failure of this approach in the early to mid-1990s. At the time, computer scientists were developing encryption technologies to secure data as it traveled over the internet. One of those encryption products was called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, a popular software that could encrypt data and make it virtually impossible to unscramble even if intercepted as it traveled to its intended recipient over the internet.

The U.S. government initially saw PGP as a dangerous weapon, fearing it would prevent its intelligence agencies from snooping on emails as they crossed their wires. To stop the distribution of PGP, the U.S. Customs Service opened a criminal investigation against PGP’s creator Phil Zimmermann for allegedly violating arms export controls. He fought back by publishing PGP’s source code as a printed book, igniting what is known today as the “Crypto Wars.”

Zimmermann later won a key battle when the investigation was closed, paving the way for crucial end-to-end encryption algorithms such as the one used by billions of Signal and WhatsApp users."

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/19/encryption-spyware-and-now-mythos-history-shows-why-cyber-export-control-doesnt-work/

#CyberSecurity #Encryption #PGP #Spyware #ExportControls #Fable #Mythos #AI #LLMs

#Bulgaria’s export control authority licensed Circles BG, a Sofia-based surveillance technology company and affiliate of the #NSO Group, to sell interception systems, mobile-tracking tools and #surveillance infrastructure to intelligence agencies in Azerbaijan, Serbia, Malaysia and Mexico.
#spyware

https://www.politico.eu/article/bulgaria-surveillance-exports-spy-agencies-leaked-licenses-circles-bg/

After a global scandal over its use of the notorious Pegasus spyware to target journalists and activists, the Presidential office of Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador secretly sought to acquire alternative spyware through a shadowy international deal involving intermediaries in Central America, Europe, and the Middle East. https://thenewsground.com/bukele-secretly-pursued-spyware-deal/ #spyware #journalist #surveillance

#WhatsApp says it caught new #spyware attacks linked to #NSO Group in violation of court order

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/whatsapp-says-it-caught-new-spyware-attacks-linked-to-nso-group-in-violation-of-court-order/

#cybersecurity #Meta #privacy

"... If I sold Google some data cables, and months later sent them an email “btw in 5 business days your cables will start sending all the data going through them to me, even though you specifically told me not to enable this feature, unless you re-disable it”, I would go to jail for hacking."

#Surveillance #Panopticon #SpyWare #Google #Gemini #Privacy #Security #Email

"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."

California's computer age verification law is poison. The new California age verification law is a version of INGSOC's telescreen watching you. And the usual self-proclaimed software freedom fighters are AWOL as this attack on your freedom is executed.

Don't listen to apologists who claim this isn't a big deal. It is a huge deal. This law is not about protecting children. The California law is a ruse for laying the foundation and precedent for mandatory remote control of all operating systems. They are using children as a shield for their true intentions. It's called a 'subterfuge' or a 'pretext' to hide the real rationale. And in politics subterfuge is very common. These politicians don't care about your children. They care about control and information is control. Compliance with California's new law is highly corrosive to free software and deadly to personal privacy.

With the mandatory age verification API in place, legislators can later add more laws mandating retrieval of even more privacy-invasive information just to install and use any operating system. This is Big Brother's telescreen in your living room. And the Linux community is nearly silent on the matter, instead focused on artificial intelligence investment.

Where were the software freedom organizations when California was mandating installation of #spyware in all free and open source operating systems? Did they oppose it? Or did they support it by silence? The California age verification law is the greatest threat to software freedom in recent history., striking right at the root of software installation for all users. Yet (((crickets))).

Is silence really tacit support?

"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."

Where were they when this mandatory spyware infrastructure was being shoved down our throats? Where were the self-proclaimed software freedom fighters? Where were the calls to action? I didn't see any.

Is silence golden ... or is gold buying silence?

Let these organizations know that you oppose California's age verification spyware law and that you expect them to rally in defense of true software freedom--freedom from government oversight of your software systems. Parents--and not the spyware state--should protect their children. The government is neither your parent nor your god nor your savior and the people should send a clear message stating that.

California, stay out of my operating system! And stay the hell away from children!

@eff@mastodon.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@fsf@hostux.social
@osi@opensource.org
@conservancy@sfconservancy.org

#AgeVerification #Linux #EFF #OSI #LinuxFoundation #FSF #Privacy #Cybersecurity #Surveillance #Spyware #OpenSource #OperatingSystems #FreeSoftware #SoftwareFreedom #Panopticon #BigBrother #Government

CC: @laffer1@bsd.network @leo@twit.social @MichaelRoss@social.linux.pizza @rms@mastodon.xyz @thenewoil@mastodon.thenewoil.org @TechDesk@flipboard.social @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org

Alt...

A crowd of sillouettes of people stands in front of a giant telescreen depicting a single giant eye watching them.