[cyode]

Pulled from IMDB, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox voices the consternation perfectly:

> Batman: [seeing the wall of monitors for the first time at the Applied Sciences division in Wayne Enterprises] Beautiful, isn't it?

> Lucius Fox: Beautiful... unethical... dangerous. You've turned every cellphone in Gotham into a microphone.

> Batman: And a high-frequency generator-receiver.

> Lucius Fox: You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham. This is wrong.

> Batman: I've gotta find this man, Lucius.

> Lucius Fox: At what cost?

> Batman: The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person.

> Lucius Fox: This is too much power for one person.

> Batman: That's why I gave it to you. Only you can use it.

> Lucius Fox: Spying on 30 million people isn't part of my job description.

[chatmasta]

That system is nothing compared to the geolocation databases curated by Apple and Google, with GPS sensors combined with Wi-Fi wardriving, IMEI tracking, cell tower handoffs, and the rest of the insane amount of telemetry they collect collect in real time. And that’s before even considering BLE and the Find My network. Imagine the “God mode” dashboards they could have in Cupertino (or more likely, in Mountain View).

[cluckindan]

Imagine a Google Maps / Google Earth where you can see everyone’s location and identity in real time, with tagging/targeting/following capabilities and quick links to thorough personal profiles.

[riffraff]

but one can choose not to use a device which is tracked, I cannot opt out of other people's cameras.

[jauntywundrkind]

I'm sorry but I just don't think that's the threat at all. I think these companies actually realize the existential risk and harm this data has, and do a lot to anonymize it quickly & effectively. If the government was actively backdooring Apple or Google to get realtime data like this, it would be found, and it would be a shitstorm that would greatly impact these companies.

We really need to get a little more discerning in our hatred. Apple especially I think is a real piece of work. But there are so many worse hideous monsters out there. Clearview AI just signed with DHS for access to a facial tracking database. Flock is out here basically giving playbooks to law enforcement to tell them to use only the most vague indirect reason when asking for data. There's so many other even less visible but incredibly dangerous data-broker foes to society, doing such harm.

Google and Apple have a level of caring far far far far far far above the vile anti-human campaign happening now. I just think you are off by a million miles, that you're not even on the right planet, for where the actual real harm is coming from.

[dangets]

Go back a little bit further to another Morgan Freeman movie - Se7en (1995) and a big plot point was that it is unthinkable for big brother to be keeping records of what library books people are checking out. Times sure have changed...

[echelon_musk]

Having rewatched that movie recently I found it absurd that all the killer would have had to have done to evade capture was purchase books with cash.

[culi]

Lmao did they really say it's null-key encrypted?

Unfortunately a very realistic depiction of how many of the brands advertising their security the strongest often have the most ridiculously broken security (flock)

[OrangeMusic]

"Null key" is technobabble, which I appreciate more than an actual real world technology reference which is wrong or gets outdated.

[StilesCrisis]

I rewatched recently. That's what he says all right.

[seg_lol]

They should have used base64 encryption.

[rightbyte]

I mean it is technobabble but in some way it is also poetic.

[reaperducer]

Lmao did they really say it's null-key encrypted?

You know movies aren't real life, don't you?

[padjo]

The Nolan Batman movies are absolutely risible in retrospect. It's hard to believe how seriously everyone took them back then.