Banks hit with $549 million in fines for use of Signal, WhatsApp to evade regulators’ reach::Wells Fargo, a relatively small player on Wall Street, racked up the most fines Tuesday, with a total of $200 million in penalties.
Private speech is never the problem and should absolutely be encouraged as a human right. The problem here is them avoiding regulators and should get fucked for that alone, that’s the crime here. Signal and Whatsapp should not be mentioned at all and this is an attempt to push “encryption bad” narrative.
Yeah, the issue is evading records keeping requirements. The issue is not encrypted communications.
These articles make me pucker my asshole. Like it could be that thing that sends us down that slippery slope.
I worked at a firm that was regulated and audited by the SEC. The standard lesson from the compliance department was always to have potentially problematic conversations out loud instead of in email or Slack. They never needed encryption to avoid regulators.
I see this as a “yes, Signal is secure, look, they used it and are getting away with it too” narrative.
I thought about that already. It’s absolutely intentional, because you already know that they’ll keep using those apps, and even if they were illegal, they would keep using them and just get another fine, which is obviously not something that bothers them. It’s to prevent normal people from having any privacy.
It’s cost if doing business for them though, the “fines” are a farce, just protection money paid to a gang.
they really need to start with forfeiting all profits. and then maybe a percentage-based fine on top of that.
make it really painful, in the only place these people can be hurt.
How about sending the people responsible to prison?
it’s more complicated when it’s an entire corporation. Corporations only care about the bottom line so they’ll let their minions take the blame. The only real solution is to hurt them in the wallet enough that they have to play by the rules to make a profit.
Not really. Put the C suite in prison and I’m sure the next crew will think twice. They can try and throw underlings under the bus but we don’t have to accept that. The buck stops at the top.
Send the whole corporation to prison since they have legal rights same as I do (but I can’t afford to enforce mine).
hey, I’d be down for that. just one question… … how?
They’ll just pass it along to the customers though, that would have to be made very illegal first… and even then they’d probably do it anyway and blame it on the tellers. In the sea of illegal things Wells Fargo has already done that wouldn’t even make a ripple.
Can’t pass anything to the customer if your business got closed by the authorities.
I feel like they need to apply charges like conspiracy and fraud against the individuals responsible. When I worked in national security oriented roles, the standard response when being asked to break the law (eg reveal classified info) was to say “I could do that, but I look really bad in orange.”
If the individuals being asked to commit violations and crimes were held individually responsible more often, people would be less likely to do it.
White collar crime costs the economy far more than other kinds of crime, and that’s due to a lack of enforcement caused by misaligned priorities.
Fines as a percentage of revenue. A big percentage. That’ll stop this nonsense.
Revocation of corporate status. A corporation is a status set out in US law. No corporate status, no legal protection for officers or shareholders. All liability falls personally and directly on the owners.
Yeah, seriously, why do people forget this so easily? THE GOVERNMENT GRANTS SPECIAL PRIVILEGES TO CORPORATIONS. Any stipulations, limitations, or exceptions are absolutely fair game. Ideally, we grant corporate charters to promote commerce and benefit society. Nobody has a right to a corporate charter, so if a corporation is harming us, we should terminate it like the pregnancy of a Republican’s mistress.
And made $5 billion on the deal. I imagine it’s like “oh right, now we have to pay off the regulators, I mean the fine.”
Its a shit show. Staff can’t event send a text saying they are sick unless they use an approved business communication channel.
Worst still, if you receive said comms from staff on a non approved channel, eg your personal phone, you have to report it to HR.
There is no way bank’s can operate like that so the regulator is going to be lining their pockets for quite some time.
It’s always Wells Fargo with the law breaking.
It’s the American version of HSBC
These really need to be reported as percentage of revenue. It’s really not that much for them.
Typical Wells Fargo
small player
Tee hee!
how do i summon the auto tldr bot?
U.S. regulators on Tuesday announced a combined $549 million in penalties against Wall Street firms that failed to maintain electronic records of employee communications.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” to maintain records, including by allowing employees to use unsupervised side channels such as messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal, the regulator said.
Wells Fargo was the biggest U.S. bank cited Tuesday in the sweeping actions.
beep boop, I’m not a bot
Good nonbot
Exsúrgat Deus et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus. Sicut déficit fumus defíciant; sicut fluit cera a fácie ígnis, sic péreant peccatóres a fácie Dei. Júdica Dómine nocéntes me; expúgna impugnántes me. Confundántur et revereántur quaeréntes ánimam meam. Avertántur retrórsum et confundántur, cogitántes míhi mála.
Quantum computers accessible only to the rich and powerful can’t get here soon enough…
Are you saying that quantum computers could help the rich encrypt their communications better?
We know most banks are scummy but Wells Fargo takes the cake. That bank is always wrapped up in some BS. If WAMU can fail we should go ahead and let Wells Fargo become extinct.
bank attack on encryption?
The banks have heavily invested in a cross platform chat app that’s (in its own words) bridging the gap.
Just wait for the consumer version ready to be pushed by governments.
Chump change for banks. Cost of doing business already sitting with the accounts team.
Good. Bastards.
