New House Speaker Mike Johnson and Son use Covenant Eyes Monitoring to Avoid Online Pornography

Evangelical Christian and new House Speaker Mike Johnson faces scrutiny for his use of religious-backed software, Covenant Eyes, which sends activity alerts when explicit content is detected, raising privacy and security concerns due to its potential vulnerability to hacks.

• Mike Johnson, the new House speaker, and his son use a service called Covenant Eyes, an 'accountability software' that alerts a chosen partner if explicit content is accessed on their device. The software, which was established about 20 years ago, markets itself as a tool to prevent engagement with online pornography.
• Covenant Eyes, based in Michigan, claims to have produced over 100 million reports about its users' activity for their 'accountability partners'. The information reported is blurred for privacy, but there are concerns that passwords and bank account logins could be monitored.
• The software employs AES 256-bit encryption for data sent to accountability partners. Any accountability data is stored in its database for 30 days before being permanently deleted. However, including names, usernames, passwords, billing information, IP addresses, and other account information are retained indefinitely.
• Cybersecurity experts express concern about the potential for Covenant Eyes to be hacked and the extent of its data protections are being questioned. Marijus Briedis, Chief Technical Officer at NordVPN, stated that while the encryption standard used by Covenant Eyes is strong, he would personally be uncomfortable with an app taking screenshots of his activities regularly. The chance of data decryption by cybercriminals appears low but the risk cannot be completely ruled out.
• Despite the religious affiliations of Covenant Eyes, which takes its name from a biblical quote from the Book of Job and provides resources to churches and ministries, it does not explicitly present itself as a religious organization. However, critics claim that it is promoting a form of sexual self-surveillance rooted in a heteronormative monogamy and potentially leads to shame or embarrassment.

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