IT ministry of India looks to block Proton Mail on request of Tamil Nadu police (www.hindustantimes.com)
from catculation@lemmy.zip to world@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 07:23
https://lemmy.zip/post/9968116

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Tristaniopsis@aussie.zone on 15 Feb 2024 07:25 next collapse

Because they cannot randomly snoop? Fuck the Tamil Po po.

Gazumi@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 07:36 next collapse

The current Indian leadership is somewhat leading democracy towards the path of dictatorship style.

Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 07:40 next collapse

But haven’t you heard? The common man is but an animal that needs to be hearded. All this surveillance is purely to the benefit of the ignorant masses. ^\s^

morrowind@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 07:47 collapse

wha… where is that quote from

Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 08:12 next collapse

That’s no quote, it’s just what I think powerful statesmen use internally to justify their actions.

troglodytis@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 18:37 collapse

Oh, it’s from the comment you replied to

bobs_monkey@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 08:47 next collapse

Seems to be a common theme around the world at the moment

mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:57 collapse

In times of crisis, the people feel fear.

People who feel fear want a loud tall angry person that makes them feel safe.

Authoritarians have been taking advantage of that since before written history.

Marsupial@quokk.au on 15 Feb 2024 10:20 collapse

Fear leads to anger.

Anger leads to hate.

Hate leads to suffering.

Marsupial@quokk.au on 15 Feb 2024 09:36 next collapse

Somewhat?

Goosestepping at frightening speeds more like it.

mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:56 collapse

As an outsider: A LOT more than ‘somewhat’, you guys are at a full gallop.

But so are we, which is how I spotted it.

Australia too, and Brittan. Most of the world is on an authoritarian bent right now.

Marsupial@quokk.au on 15 Feb 2024 10:21 collapse

Australia is not on an authoritarian bent right now. We ended ours already.

wahming@monyet.cc on 15 Feb 2024 10:54 next collapse

In a good or bad way? I don’t follow Aus news

Marsupial@quokk.au on 15 Feb 2024 11:04 collapse

Good.

We had been on one for a while but it’s over and the right wings got very little support these days.

wahming@monyet.cc on 15 Feb 2024 11:09 collapse

Great to hear!

mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 12:59 collapse

Not according to the news but I hope everything turns out ok.

Also: Fuck You for Rupert Murdoch. Why couldn’t you keep him contained?

Marsupial@quokk.au on 15 Feb 2024 20:59 collapse

What news exactly?

aggelalex@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 08:19 next collapse

Protonmail is just a bloody email. If you think you can block it, you’re wrong.

bobs_monkey@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 08:51 collapse

They can block the domain at the national level though. People that use their own domains with proton’s service might be fine and pass through, but it would likely be pretty easy to simply filter out all of proton’s own domains (@proton.me, @protonmail.com, @pm.me, @proton mail.ch) instead of trying to block the underlying protocols.

Tangent5280@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:08 next collapse

Please explain. If someone uses a VPN, wouldn’t they still be able to access their email via the website and send/receive emails normally? The Indian government blocked all pornography IIRC some years(?) ago, but that hasn’t really stopped anyone. Won’t this also work the same way?

victorz@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:17 next collapse

I think so?

Deestan@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 10:12 collapse

There are some layers to this.

First, it’s that working through VPN is too technical for most of the population. Just think of the many people running without adblockers, or people who leave their lamps and chargers plugged in branched power extenders forever instead of opening up their wall and rewiring to get more outlets in a better place. if something is important and becomes inaccessible, like porn, people will learn what they need to get around the block. If there are easily available alternatives - as there is with email - those will be picked instead. This effectively cuts off over 90% of the users.

Then there is the case where it makes you more prosecutable if you do work around the blocking, even legally. I know this doesn’t sound fair, but it is to some degree necessary to make the unclear and muddy parts of the justice systems work. There is “innocent until proven guilty”, but “proven guilty” can sometimes be very subjective and based on circumstance, witness claims and “character profile”. if there is lack of clear evidence, but strong indicators that you did in fact collaborate illegally on insider trading, it will make a difference whether there is lack of evidence because the police could read all your communication and find nothing, or lack of evidence because you use encryption, VPNs and tend to burn all written notes you make at the end of the day.

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 10:48 collapse

i think those people are less likely to be using something other than gmail in the first place

SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 11:27 next collapse

And if someone uses 8.8.8.8 as their dns (this is the google dns) then they can connect again.

Evotech@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 17:05 collapse

Could block DNS. Like china does.

i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de on 15 Feb 2024 13:12 collapse

If you’re a paying user, Proton Mail Bridge is supposed to automatically work around your government trying to block it: proton.me/…/anti-censorship-alternative-routing

victorz@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:18 next collapse

That is a lot of potential users.

clot27@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 10:12 next collapse

Fuck modi

THE_MASTERMIND@feddit.ch on 15 Feb 2024 11:36 collapse

Fuck modi

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 10:46 next collapse

thats a point in favor of protonmail

makes it actually look like its doing what it promises.

deweydecibel@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 12:44 collapse

Should be noted though:

The spokesperson said that Proton 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.

Although Proton Mail is end-to-end encrypted, which means the content of the emails cannot be intercepted and can only be seen by the sender and recipient if both are using Proton Mail, its privacy policy states that due to the nature of the SMTP protocol, certain email metadata — including sender and recipient email addresses, the IP address incoming messages originated from, attachment name, message subject, and message sent and received times — is available with the company.

Their hands are definitely tied in the situation, they have to comply with them to a degree to operate in the country, I’m not judging them too harshly.

But it is a pretty good reminder that at the end of the day, if you are paying a for-profit business to obfuscate and hide you from a government that has the ability to stop them, their financial incentives will be tested, and they will win out if there isn’t some sort of law or regulation to protect them from this type of strong arming.

LordWiggle@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 18:45 collapse

I had my concerns when I read this. But in the end, Proton has the best privacy protection out there AFAIK, outside of dark web mailing services maybe. So even though I’m not happy about their reaction (willing to cooperate if legally possible), it’s still better then Google, Microsoft or any other mailing service I’m familiar with. I find the services of Proton to be amazing, I won’t drop using them. Mail, vpn, drive, agenda, pass. It just works great and I feel safe.

dezmd@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 16:05 collapse

Worrying so much about privacy from your email service and not running your own goddamn email server seems a bit disconnected from the reality of using any cloud services hosted by anyone else at all.

bramblepatchmystery@slrpnk.net on 17 Feb 2024 06:47 collapse

If they are trustworthy enough for CERN’s usage, it’s probably better to go with proton than just trusting yourself, and likely cheaper.

Falcon@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 11:28 next collapse

So it looks like protonmail is actually legit then

Tangent5280@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 15:22 collapse

Nothing like a failed government wringing attempt to bolster trust.

THE_MASTERMIND@feddit.ch on 15 Feb 2024 11:38 next collapse

An indian sim called jio which is in cahoot with the government actually blocks all the vpns is that even legal ? And jio is growing up to be a quiete a monopoly.

Tangent5280@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 15:48 collapse

Yeah this is kinda worrying.

THE_MASTERMIND@feddit.ch on 16 Feb 2024 15:49 collapse

It is extremely

muhyb@programming.dev on 15 Feb 2024 11:45 next collapse

It’s also being blocked in Turkey for some time.

FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 16:00 next collapse

Imagine thinking you can make encryption illegal. Fucking imbeciles.

pozbo@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 19:24 collapse

Maybe the IT ministry of India can do something about all the scam call centers and Botnets running out of sector 5…

newcockroach@lemmy.world on 17 Feb 2024 18:55 collapse

Man! I dont know what our IT ministry is smoking but Censorship has become their goto to ruin their reputaion and show of their lack of IT knowledge.