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This is essentially a worrying prospect if these developments are actually implemented or advance further. The users trust in the social media service is breached if a backdoor where to be placed in their products (It also defeats the purpose of the end-to-end encryption argument). If you reside in the UK and especially in London, things have just become 500% more Orwellian.

>Priti Patel, the U.K.’s home secretary, has previously warned that Facebook’s plan to enable users to send end-to-end encrypted messages would benefit criminals...

In London alone, it is not possible to pay for public transport with cash. A debit card/oyster is required but for anonymous travel, an oyster can be topped up via cash and reduces transport surveillance, unlike using credit / debit cards. Their reasons for doing this because it "benefits criminals" is echoing the "ban encryption" nonsense.

> The U.K. and the U.S. have agreed not to investigate each other’s citizens as part of the deal...

This I don't believe.

EDIT: Use a oyster card for public anonymous transport, refrain from using a credit / debit card for this.

5 comments

>In London alone, it is not possible to pay for public transport with cash and a card is required. Their reasons for doing this because it "benefits criminals" is echoing the "ban encryption" nonsense.

Not strictly true. You can buy an oyster card with cash, you can load it with cash and use that. After a weeks worth of journeys you can return it and get your £5 deposit back and buy another one.

Not exactly perfect but it's essentially the same as having a burner phone.

although you anonymously purchase the oyster card, you can be de-anonymized the moment you scan the card, as face recognition links you with that card.

Sure, but the link to an ephemeral Oyster card doesn't give them anything that the face recognition doesn't give them already. If they can track faces, then they can track journeys even if you're paying in cash directly for every ticket.

What happens if you cover your face while you scan?

You might be forced to identify yourself:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/facial-recogniti...

you may slip up, or the system can always flag the id card if they're unable to make an automatic link to a card bought with cash, causing a human operator to get involved. If they see that you block your face everytime, they then can activate and access the total surveillance resources and flag the card.

Thanks for your clarification, I edited this post.

I live in London.It has already gone way beyond of what Orwell could have ever imagined. However,despite of all the surveillance, London is the crime capital of the world.This is probably the best place for criminals,as unless you pull a machine gun on a crowd,not much will be investigated.

>>not much will be investigated.

I live in the UK and I feel like this is the crux of the issue. I am an active member of a sports car forum in the UK and it's terrifying how little police does in case of theft, even when the house was broken into to get the keys. If you get someone to come out and write down a report that is a miracle in itself - in 90% of cases you are just given a case number and told to speak with your insurer, nothing is ever done. I know a guy whose Range Rover was stolen, he reported it, no one came out - then few days later found it parked in a car park nearby, he rang the police to tell them that he found his stolen car, where it is, and asked if they want to come over and maybe catch whoever comes for it(or you know, maybe take fingerprints and such)? Nah, he was told that if he still has the key he can just take it, they don't have any officers to actually come out anyway. I have friends who were robbed, burgled ,and literally nothing is ever done. There is zero police on the roads around where I live, I'm actually surprised people still follow the rules of the road because realistically, the chances of ever running into a police car are somewhere around zero.

It just feels like police in the UK has been gutted to the point that unless you are literally being shot/stabbed, there is not enough resources to actually help or investigate anything. It's a shell of a functional service.

>It's a shell of a functional service.

I can't say this in any less of a politically charged way but 10 years of austerity will do that.

There's some evidence to suggest that more policing leads to more crime (drops in policing are correlated with a lower # of major crimes). If you're going to be hassled by police anyway, why not go large? Hence the old proverb 'might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.'

We don't necessarily need more police on the streets ( depends on the area,as always), however there's a genuine need for more,who can solve cases.I've got endless list of examples, including my own situations,where police do either nothing,because the matter is deemed not serious enough or simply don't have resources to deal with it,unless it's an attempt to murder, political threats or terrorism.

>London is the crime capital of the world

Please don't irresponsibly spread this kind of inaccurate information. Crime in London is not unusually high.

Isn't most of the crime happening insides the bank offices?

Not wrong if you count by currency certainly.

Can't you buy new oyster cards with cash?

I believe so. I know there's definitely a way to get transport with cash. It's just a cost saving measure to only take contactless.

Yes that's possible and it is anonymous. I've clarified this in the edited post.

Yes, and most newsagents will let you top them up with cash.

Oyster cards can be shared and bought anomalously, and topped up with cash anonymously

You can also buy cash tickets like a travel card

It is also worth pointing out that you can still buy paper bush tickets, and can use cash to do so.