[onehair]

Now this is even more alarming! Wireguard's creator has their Microsoft account suspended...

<Tin foil hat on> Microsoft doesn't want to allow software that would allow the user to shield themselves, either by totally encrypting a drive, or by encrypting their network traffic! </Tin foil hat on>

[unicornporn]

> Microsoft doesn't want to allow software that would allow the user to shield themselves

I don't think Microsoft cares (about anything besides making mo' money), but there are plenty of (state) actors that can influence the decision-making at Microsoft when it comes to these issues.

No tinfoil needed.

[anonym29]

>I don't think Microsoft cares (about anything else than making money), but there are plenty of (state) actors that can influence the decision-making at Microsoft when it comes to these issues.

Microsoft the corporation may only care about making money, but a lot of very high ranking folks within MS Security aren't just friendly to intelligence agencies, they take genuine pride in helping intelligence agencies. They're the kinds of people who saw nothing wrong or objectionable with PRISM whatsoever, they were just mad they got caught, and that the end user (who they believe had no right to even know about it) found out anyway. The kind of people who openly defend the legitimacy of the FISA court.

This aren't baseless accusations, this comes from first-hand experience interacting with and talking to several of them. Charlie Bell literally kept a CIA mug on a shelf behind him, prominently visible during Teams calls, as if to brag.

Remember - Microsoft was the very first company on the NSA's own internal slide deck depicting a timeline of PRISM collection capabilities by platform, started all the way back in 2007. All companies on that slide may have been compelled to assist with national security letters. Some were just more eager than others to betray the privacy and trust of their own customers and end-users.

[maxo133]

I can completely believe this.

I was always convinced that Skype was bought by microsoft so CIA/US intelligence agencies to have listening capabilities.

The first thing Microsoft did after the Skype purchase was making it easier to tap into the calls by removing p2p calling and routing calls using centralized servers.

[vardump]

Yeah. Otherwise Microsoft purchasing Skype made no sense.

[dboreham]

It's quite possible TLAs plant employees inside important tech companies. So not only are they sympathetic, they directly work for them.

[SoftTalker]

That's my experience with most computer security folks as well, and tech companies who sell security products. Cloak-and-dagger stuff running 24x7 in their heads.

[anonym29]

There are quite a few extremely talented security folks who are more or less the polar opposite, who view people like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange as heroes, the NSA as guilty of treason, as James Clapper as guilty of perjury, even inside of corporations like Microsoft.

The catch is, views like those must be kept to a fairly modest level by the people who hold them. Discussing them with ideologically aligned colleagues may be fine, but for example, when someone makes statements or asks questions with such pro-privacy framing on stage directly to security leadership at internal company conferences, that is a quick way to a severance package not only for the person on stage, but also for dozens of folks in the audience who clapped a little too enthusiastically at the onstage remarks.

[vstm]

> No tinfoil needed.

That's what Big Tinfoil wants you to believe!

[whycome]

I heard it doesn’t even contain tin!

[burnt-resistor]

Total enshittification with this pure aluminium shit. The hats don't block government UFO mind control waves and hold their shape nearly as well as the tin ones did. Fucking private equity ruins everything.

[falcor84]

Wait, what?! I was sure that the agenda of Big Tinfoil was to generate FUD so that we buy more tinfoil for our hats. Are you implying their agenda goes even deeper?

[kps]

Have you tried to buy tin foil lately? Big Aluminum has taken over, and just see how far you get soldering the grounding strap to an aluminum foil hat.

[kube-system]

Big Alumulumu is soon to be the market leader.

https://www.tiktok.com/@etong_winter_palikir/video/739554877...

[bombcar]

This is the dirty secret; Big Weird tried to warn us but we didn't listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urglg3WimHA

https://www.goodfellow.com/usa/tin-foil-group

[shevy-java]

But making money at the expense of people is not a Tinfoil conspiracy - it's a factual statement.

[lukan]

It is also a factual statement, that tinfoil shields (somewhat) from electromagnetic radiation.

[balamatom]

But it is NOT necessarily a factual statement that one of the main uses of electromagnetic radiation is for humans to send information over long distances; nor that I first learned about tinfoil hats from some random piece of information that was being broadcast by means of electromagnetic radiation. It's just a vibe.

[balamatom]

>I don't think Microsoft cares (about anything besides making mo' money)

If Microsoft amounts to a sentient entity (i.e. is able to care about things), we have a bigger problem.

If we put the wall of metaphor between us and that interpretation, it still remains likely that "users shielding themselves" is of primary concern to Microsoft's bottom line.

[Macha]

Alternatively they asked copilot to scan for crypto projects and ban them

[riskable]

You think it would succeed at that? Come on. Copilot is for entertainment purposes only!

[bombcar]

Watching Microsoft try to dogfood Copilot is entertaining to me, in a way.

[rvnx]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/05/copilot-is-for-entertainme...

At least it reached its goal if it entertained you

[ngetchell]

Or more likely, some automated security system flagged popular but suspicious apps for further review.

[antiframe]

If you use an automated process to disable accounts but then state there is no appeals process available as they stated, then you are not to be trusted to be acting in good faith. Bad actors should be called out and not given the benefit of the doubt.

[Gigachad]

Automated systems breaking things without any human contact to get them resolved seems to be the theme of the last 10 years.

[burnt-resistor]

This phenomenon is so Orwellian with insufficient awareness, it should both be an SNL skit and a John Oliver episode. It's illiberal, neoliberal, corporate bullshit that causes harm to individuals. These companies need to be treated as utilities and the "companies can do whatever they want" arguments must be debunked and defeated because of the pervasive power they hold and immense harm they can cause to individuals without a remedy when they rug pull access without clear cause.

It also reminds me of the case of the entire family who lost all of their payment-linked individual accounts including business data and an academic dissertation because the son allegedly behaved inappropriately with a bot. Collective punishment on top of technofeudal instant banishment.

[account42]

And the worst thing is that we have the power to collectively make that behavior into a corporation-ending scandal but we choose not to because it doesn't affect most of us personally yet.

[raxxorraxor]

Where are the people that tried to sell us software signatures as security benefit? The reality is that they are a very specific security problem. In theory and in practice.

[nelox]

Maybe they let Mythos loose and it suggested the safest approach was to remove access ;)

[varispeed]

It is more likely that government doesn't want to allow people to have privacy. Microsoft just obediently listen to orders and execute them.

[blitzar]

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

[justin_oaks]

When a company makes it impossible to correct their stupidity, it's a malicious act. The behavior speaks loud and clear: "We don't care what damage we do to developers or users. And we don't want to hear about it."

[tux1968]

I'm more convinced than ever that this aphorism has it completely backwards.

[pocksuppet]

It was probably true at some point, then malicious people learned how to fake stupidity and they outnumber actual stupid people, and they learned how to recruit stupid people to their causes.

[xeonmc]

Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by profit motives.

[subscribed]

Or it's being spread by the malicious actors, like "money doesn't buy happiness".

[NekkoDroid]

But it doesn't!!! It only buys things that make happy. See? Big difference! /s

[account42]

It's a decent rule for when one of your close friends breaks your favorite mug. Not so much for complete strangers, not to mention faceless mega-corporations, making choices to fuck you over.

[BoredPositron]

The guise of a harmless mistake has worn so thin and is so overused by tech companies that I now only see deliberate intent.