PsychoInaCan
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2015–2021
0:09 · 451K views · Feb 9, 2013
A very short clip titled Criminal Conspiracy Notes, apparently the scene from The Wire in which Stringer Bell scolds his associates for taking written notes at a meeting.
HN uses it as a joke or warning shorthand, the 'Stringer Bell warning', about leaving written evidence of illegal plans.
3 comments from Hacker News
To elaborate, the security precautions you take are entirely dependent on the threat you face (or believe you face). If you're Dread Pirate Roberts, creating a detailed diary of you criminal activities is a terrible idea [1]. If you're a 13 yr old girl, creating a detailed day by day diary is probably not a life threatening decision. You should take the precautions appropriate for your threat model and risk appetite. I suggest deleting correspondence after a set period of time. I know people that do a yearly purge of all their sensitive mail for the previous year in January. If you are encrypting for the sake of encrypting, as some people do (see: cover traffic), then you can keep archives of your mail because you face no negative outcome if your archive is compromised. There is no downside, so go for it. [1] this video
This is what’s known as a Stringer Bell warning[0] and it doesn’t reflect well on the organization who has to make it this aggressively. Yes, it stands to reason that if you’re engaged in a potentially unlawful conspiracy you need to be careful what you put in writing. However if this is coming up constantly and prevents you from using common sense words for your regular business operations then it’s a pretty clear red flag that your actions may be subjecting you to legal liability. [0] this video
This is such a great/terrible example of the absolute arrogance in the tech industry. I really do try to defend tech in general, but then something like this comes along. Your claim is that you can enter into an industry literally thousands of years old and use a little algorithmic magic to prevent sex trafficking where the world's collective police departments have consistently failed. And it's all done by an anonymous bunch of dudes. Pretending that they have an "extrajurisdictional company". Which, yes, is a criminal conspiracy. Except conducted on the web, and funded by an illegal securities sale. It of course brings to mind this classic bit from the Wire: this video