[IP] is restricted cell net access acceptable?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed@reed.com>
Date: July 5, 2007 11:51:01 AM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: is restricted cell net access acceptable?

Not that it matters, but I suspect you don't legally own the data you  
enter or access through the iPhone interface.   Whitacre's claim to  
own anything done on "his network" is still the modus operandi of  
ATT, and your ISP clearly has been joining in with the US govt to  
claim that any data on servers (including saved email) is not yours  
exclusively.

So it's pretty easy to construct the legal argument that the iPhone  
is not your space for private data.   It's at best a locker you  
license (read "rent") from Apple at their pleasure.

But who cares?   You don't own the right not to watch commercials  
either.  Or the right to vote for a candidate who is not brought to  
you by a consortium of corporate interests just as your beloved free  
over the air TV is brought to you by their corporate sponsors.

Privacy - get over it.

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: bts@evenmere.org (Brian T. Sniffen)
> Date: July 5, 2007 12:19:35 AM EDT
> To: christian@kuhtz.com, dave@farber.net
> Subject: Re: [IP] is restricted cell net access acceptable?
>
>
> > Isn't [Web app] access public enough for a mobile terminal where
> > operators interests do matter, although perhaps not as much as
> > operators constrain it to today?
>
> It restricts one critical component: the iPhone cannot keep a  
> secret.  I
> don't mean that your data isn't safe---I'm sure Apple's put  
> significant
> effort into keeping secrets in their native apps, and that the SSL/TLS
> code is well done.  I mean that the web apps I can write for an iPhone
> cannot behave as principals in cryptographic protocols.  I can't write
> an SSH client, for example, or a protocol for any instant messaging
> system whatsoever.  The only way to do such is to run the interesting
> protocol client remotely, and provide a web interface to access  
> from the
> iPhone.  That unnecessarily involves a third party.
>
> As you say, the iPhone is a mobile network terminal---but its
> capabilities as a peer on that network have been crippled.
>
> I also cannot write an editor or viewer for locally stored data--- 
> that's
> a problem related to secret keeping and to the origin-only  
> restrictions
> on JavaScript.
>
> -Brian


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