
Google Gives Free Security Keys to Activists, but Not If You’re in Iran or Syria - pulisse
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kxy4p/google-titan-keys-iran-syria-cuba-crimea-sudan-north-korea
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rabeener
I usually like Motherboard but this is sensationalist anti-Google BS.

>>Google may be simply trying to stay in line with export legislation—it’s not
totally clear if providing these devices to people in these countries would
violate any US or international embargoes or export laws

It’s understandable that Google’s legal team would look at this and say,
embargo laws are hard and this is new tech that involved cryptography so let’s
not risk violating those laws and make sure we don’t send our keys to
embargoed countries.

Or in other words, let’s not risk helping activists around the rest of world
by sending what turns out to be embargoed tech to embargoed countries.

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kevin_b_er
Google is most definitely trying to stay in line with embargo rules. It is
illegal to export anything to Iran without an explicit license. And this is
one of those few laws that permits piercing the corporate veil to go after
those involved in the export. Google execs, project managers, and maybe
individual engineers, can be gone after directly if they chose to send these
things to Iran or Syria.

Motherboard is trying some kind of shaming ritual on Google, but it won't
work, because those laws are very potent.

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Piskvorrr
Remember when RSA was considered weapons-grade and illegal to export from USA?
Well...apparently the future's still distributed pretty unevenly.

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villedepommes
The future is asymmetrical

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Piskvorrr
Always has been. Some episodes tend to resurface, though...

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algaeontoast
Why on earth would you trust a security key given to you by google. Especially
if they sent it to YOU and obviously know that this key is now associated with
YOU and only YOU?...

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duskwuff
Because the purpose of that security key is to allow you to securely identify
yourself to Google?

