this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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Privacy

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11998237

The IT ministry has reportedly decided to issue an order blocking end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the government is planning to block the email service at the request of the Tamil Nadu police over a hoax bomb threat sent to at least thirteen private schools in Chennai on February 8. The report says that the decision to block ProtonMail was taken at a meeting of the 69A blocking committee on Wednesday (February 14).

A Proton spokesperson told the publication that the company has received the request from MeitY “a few days ago”. “We are currently working to resolve this situation and are investigating how we can best work together with the Indian authorities to do so. We understand the urgency of the situation and are completely clear that our services are not to be used for illegal purposes. We routinely remove users who are found to be doing so and are willing to cooperate wherever possible within international cooperation agreements,” the spokesperson said.

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[–] UnfortunateShort 72 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Send a bomb threat from all major mail-providers any% speedrun anyone?

Seriously, as if no one ever send a threat from a throwaway Gmail account. The bullshit governments come up with to dismantle privacy...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Have you tried creating an account recently with any other providers? Almost all of them require a phone number of some kind. This creates a paper trail back to the owner.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Lol. I can get a fake phone number or create a Gmail without any phone number blind drunk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Oh well please tell me. Have yet to find a way around creating a Gmail account without a valid phone number.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Well a few ways . Create it on a pixelphone running GOS thru the sandboxed playstore . I also believe it works on any phone running below android 5.

Get a fake number. Plenty of options on Google I use a paid service using Monero. Worth it , cost like 3 euro for a few hours, or a few cents for a one-time SMS.

[–] UnfortunateShort 2 points 9 months ago

I recently did just that, even via VPN. They simply didn't ask me to. Maybe a regional thing?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Lol you can't if you use tor or vpn gmail will ask for a phone number

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Use a public net /local coffee shop. Or one of the options above. Also No issue running stealth mode VPN ..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In india public net is very rare

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How my man you need an identity card that verifies through government database to get a sim in india.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You don't need a sim to get a verification code. Here is a service I use https://sms-man.com/?ref=qPLi0ekHzn_c but plenty of free ones if you got the time to test 20 non working numbers to find one that works. Just Google temporary SMS or recieve SMS online

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I used to try these but gave up after spending too much time on those

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago
[–] UnfortunateShort 2 points 9 months ago

You will find services that provide you with a phone number that can be traced back to no one, if you dig a little... In some countries you can straight up just buy an eSIM with a false identity

[–] Stewbs 6 points 9 months ago

The thing is, google will willingly hand over the data willy-nilly when asked for which proton does not so ofc they are the "bad guys" here. Hurrr, what do you mean that I cannot ask you to access any user's data at any time?! Also here's a funny thing, look at the comments in the article I linked lol, they do not understand how Proton operates and how the Swiss law applies to them

[–] vegantomato 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's a cat and mouse game. Eventually, the government will basically control the people like cattle. Just look at China. Being sneaky is never a good long-term solution. It NEVER works long-term. There has to be a collective effort at changing the trajectory of a society, or it wont change. This requires sacrifice, which I doubt the serfs, sorry, I mean the people of India are interested in doing. Their backwards religion (Hinduism) prevents them from growing past their dysfunction, racism, and irrational hatred. It acts as a tool and a distraction to keep the status quo, and so they will remain backwards and subdued.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So if it's sent with WhatsApp, they'll ban WhatsApp? That's the logic here, right?

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

[–] [email protected] 54 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Did you just license your comment?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

He does that on all his posts. I immediately recognize him each time he comments. I don't know if he's just trolling or he really thinks it's gonna keep the LLMs away. In any case, it's funny as shit.

[–] Stewbs 2 points 9 months ago

that's amazing lmao

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Lol what a madlad

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Next time send a letter. Letters will be banned.

[–] Stewbs 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

let's ban phones next guys

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

and brains too, very dangerous

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can’t have those things being used unregulated or unmonitored

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

we should make like a scoring system that (without human involvement) determines what brains are the best and worst behaved, thus more likely to benefit their leaders. we could design our society to keep people so preoccupied on making their score better (through things not beneficial to themselves whatsoever) that they don’t have enough time to think about how completely alone and manipulated they feel (we don’t want them feeling that :). maybe down the road this score could be used for good things like improving the economy (selling access to third parties) and handling food and resource concerns (automated death row enrollment)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

We’ll make it AI trained on all the “best” citizens, fully automatic!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

I hope they ban WhatsApp if anyone sends a bomb threath trough WhatsApp

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

useless, unless they block protonVpn too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Jio aldready does that

[–] Stewbs 1 points 9 months ago

Other than Jio, idrk know of any ISP that does that

[–] Stewbs 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Btw Internet Freedom Foundation (or the IFF) filed several RTI requests (RTI = Request to information) regarding this situation. If anyone wants to follow their progress then here’s their Mastodon account: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]

The IFF is a highly trustworthy and well respected organization that fights for Indians digital rights and democratic freedoms. They’ve done a lot of good work over the years, they even helped VLC to get unblocked when it was banned in India.

[–] Stewbs 2 points 9 months ago

Here's their toot mentioning the situation with Proton Mail: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]/111935324571240375

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Well that's definitely one option, I guess...

[–] vegantomato 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

This is why India is American corporations' newly found love, because India is a nation of serfs that can be abused in a systematic way.

[–] Stewbs -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

no need to get racist my guy damn 💀 💀

[–] vegantomato 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm not. If all someone has is a shitty factory job with poor working conditions, and no way out, then they are living in serfdom. I do not care what color they are, or where they are from.

It's not a secret that big corporation outsource manufacturing to these sorts of nations to exploit cheap labor, poor worker protections and poor laws pertaining to the preservation of their counties' environments. In the manufacturing hub of the world, China, at least 80% of its ground water is undrinkable due to all the pollution. Now that China is being considered a national security threat, sanctions have increased, and so the vultures are dispersing and going elsewhere, like to India.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago