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Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

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Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#11

Post by binarymax »

I remember back in the 90's, when Intel was going to introduce a unique identifier in their processors that could be used for authentication purposes, it caused a huge uproar and Intel backed down. [0]

Having a hardware embedded unique ID that can be (is) used for tracking a known persons location at all times is probably the most intrusive privacy violation we've ever had. That we willingly carry these things around and naively throw the repercussions out the window is the result of the death by a thousand cuts.

We've long lost the war on privacy.

[0] https://www.wired.com/1999/01/intel-on-privacy-whoops/

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#14

Post by Cyph0n »

dannykwells wrote: post #9
sampo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By supporting Saudi Arabia the West really shoots itself in the foot. Well, the West went and took down the regime in Iraq, but some think that didn't go so well, either. SA is ruled by a clan and king, so it's not a full theocracy at least. If you go and perturb things, there is also room to make the situation worse.

Also different than selling them like 10Bil in arms. Europe, for example, has not invaded SA, but is not buddy buddy with MBS. Also, it's clear that sanctions are a much more powerful weapon than invasion. Western sanctions (or embargo) on SA oil would certainly put them in a tight(er) spot. No excuses!!!

Weapons sanctions are guaranteed way to hit the Gulf monarchies hard. They are extremely dependent on US tech as far as I know.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#16

Post by Cyph0n »

sampo wrote: post #4
maxxxxx wrote: post #2

By supporting Saudi Arabia the West really shoots itself in the foot. You can't lecture other countries about freedom while supporting this regime.

> By supporting Saudi Arabia the West really shoots itself in the foot. Well, the West went and took down the regime in Iraq, but some think that didn't go so well, either. SA is ruled by a clan and king, so it's not a full theocracy at least. If you go and perturb things, there is also room to make the situation worse.

I think the US handled the aftermath of the invasion quite poorly for a variety of reasons, one of which was the heavy exploitation of the sectarian divide.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#17

Post by moftz »

binarymax wrote: post #11

I remember back in the 90's, when Intel was going to introduce a unique identifier in their processors that could be used for authentication purposes, it caused a huge uproar and Intel backed down. [0] Having a hardware embedded unique ID that can be (is) used for tracking a known persons location at all times is probably the most intrusive privacy violation we've ever had. That we willingly carry these things around…

Intel ME already can spit out the UUID of the chip and has been able to do it for over a decade.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#18

Post by colechristensen »

maxxxxx wrote: post #2

By supporting Saudi Arabia the West really shoots itself in the foot. You can't lecture other countries about freedom while supporting this regime.

There is a delicate game being played.

If you are friendly with SA you can put pressure on them to improve. If you declare them an evil enemy would the outcome be better?

There is a path to walk and it is not easy to find the right one when you have to deal with reality not just idealism. The natural resources in the middle east are important to the world and it is not so simple as an 'us vs. them' because there are many entirely separate interests in the region and we play them off each other.

Maybe it would be better to do a Star Trek style prime directive of completely cutting off countries until they have a certain level of social development, but you would have to come to terms with knowing bad things were happening and actively deciding to do nothing.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#19

Post by sampo »

Cyph0n wrote: post #14
dannykwells wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also different than selling them like 10Bil in arms. Europe, for example, has not invaded SA, but is not buddy buddy with MBS. Also, it's clear that sanctions are a much more powerful weapon than invasion. Western sanctions (or embargo) on SA oil would certainly put them in a tight(er) spot. No excuses!!!

Weapons sanctions are guaranteed way to hit the Gulf monarchies hard. They are extremely dependent on US tech as far as I know.

You just need to estimate to level of sanctions so that the monarchy will still be able to stay in power, without risking an Islamic revolution.

Re: Saudi Arabia tracks runaway women by cellphone IMEI

#20

Post by lostlogin »

tehjoker wrote: post #7
ilikehurdles wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could cut trade relations without violently attempting regime change.

Fwiw, the sanctions the US imposes on other countries often are brutal to their innocent population. One thing we could do is provide asylum for persecuted people, but appearently we don't do that anymore (and never have done it in great quantity).

A lot of the early European settlers in the US were fleeing religious persecution. But I suppose it wasn’t the USA then... https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html
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