Google Allo 減弱本來的安全設計

Google Allo 減弱了本來的安全設計:「Google backs off on previously announced Allo privacy feature」。

藉由修改預設行為減弱:

The version of Allo rolling out today will store all non-incognito messages by default — a clear change from Google’s earlier statements that the app would only store messages transiently and in non-identifiable form.

本來的預設值不會記錄身份,現在會了。而 The Verge 的猜設是這樣可以減少其他類似的情況,藉以討好政府:

That leaves Google with much less danger of the kind of legal showdown Apple faced in San Bernardino and WhatsApp currently faces in Brazil.

Google 刻意讓 Allo 不安全的方法

兩篇文章與一則 tweet 剛好可以一起看。

兩篇文章分別是「Don't Use Allo」講 Google Allo 預設沒有加密的問題,與「How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist」講如何設計產品來改變人的行為。

在市場上的領先者 Whatsapp 已經啟用預設 end-to-end encryption 後,Google Allo 之所以不是預設加密的原因,是基於這樣的設計方法,因為 Google 並不想要加密:

Businesses naturally want to make the choices they want you to make easier, and the choices they don’t want you to make harder. Magicians do the same thing. You make it easier for a spectator to pick the thing you want them to pick, and harder to pick the thing you don’t.

而這則 tweet 剛好解釋了這個方法背後幾個可能的利害關係,大公司受到政府單位的施壓而妥協:

剛剛好都是最近的文章,整起來剛剛好...