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Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

digitalrightswatch.org.au

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Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#371

Post by roody15 »

shakna wrote: post #310
roody15 wrote: post #269

I simply cannot wrap my mind around what is happening in Australia. Continuing a lockwdown while the number of positive covid cases remains in the low hundreds and the daily death rate in the lower tens to single digits. Nothing makes sense here. Draconian laws, complete shutdown over something that is and has been statistically under control and managed from months. Am I alone here or do people really think what is…

> Continuing a lockwdown while the number of positive covid cases remains in the low hundreds and the daily death rate in the lower tens to single digits. Correction - thousands, not hundreds. But comparison to the previous numbers is required, because it's approaching the peak we've seen. So close to highest ever, rather than something to be dismissed. > Serious cannot leave your house outside and go outside for a j…

Do you have to wear a mask when jogging outside? (or walking etc). Can you jog with your family or small group of friends?

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#372

Post by Nursie »

Aerroon wrote: post #225

I'm always kind of surprised by people who move to Australia. It's a country that has had an active policy of censorship on entertainment for a very long time - books, video games, movies. The fact that the populace is okay with such a policy would make me reconsider moving there. I've also read some really questionable things about policies regarding aboriginals in the northern territories. In 2007 the government 't…

The ban on alcohol in some communities is (AFAICT) welcomed by those communities, which have massive problems with it. There are laws in other states which allow people to declare their house a “dry place” which is then enforceable by law, to try to stop anyone from bringing alcohol into the house.

I can’t tell you whether any of these measures work, but they aren’t implemented for reasons of racist suppression, from what I can tell. Also no idea on the porn bans.

I’ve just moved to Australia, for the second time. The censorship you talk about is trivial and easily worked around (Video game didn’t get approved for sale? Order in from New Zealand or Hong Kong)

The populace isn’t so much OK with the policy as unaffected by it. These policies usually come from SA and are usually rooted in religion, which still seems to hold sway there.

The appeal of Aus to this Brit is that it has space, so much space, and sunshine. And it’s not as downright crazy as the USA (guns, employment rights, healthcare etc)

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#373

Post by fomine3 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #333
Aerroon wrote: post #225

I'm always kind of surprised by people who move to Australia. It's a country that has had an active policy of censorship on entertainment for a very long time - books, video games, movies. The fact that the populace is okay with such a policy would make me reconsider moving there. I've also read some really questionable things about policies regarding aboriginals in the northern territories. In 2007 the government 't…

>that the populace is okay with such a policy would make me reconsider moving there When I had to decide for a job relocation whether I should move to the UK or to the US I had many issues in mind, wages, safety, public transport, childcare, culture but I'm gonna be honest 'censorship in videogames' wasn't very high on the list. Not to mention that the discourse in regards to Australia seems incredibly hyperbolic in…

I'd like to say it just 'censorship' than 'censorship in videogames'. OP said 'books, video games, movies' so it seems that every media can be censored in the future.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#374

Post by spangry »

WalterBright wrote: post #186
layoric wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Born in AU so bias is to stay, which leads me to push more for political change required to try to address these problems. Most of your 10 years has been under a particularly bad (and honestly corrupt) federal gov. Country has a large state capture problem from largely mining companies but also other special interests that have lobbied and . Anything that might threaten those interests is being pretty heavily targete…

> compulsory voting This always seemed like madness to me. You can force someone to vote, but you cannot force them to vote responsibly. They may just vote "screw you" just for revenge. The right to vote includes the right to abstain from voting when one does not care. Forced voting sounds like a recipe for bad election results. I would expect the same from paying people to vote.

There are pros and cons to either approach. I've been wondering recently if voluntary voting in the US is partially responsible for the tribal political atmosphere? As I understand it, one of the big challenges both major parties face in the US is how to motivate their voting bases to actually turn up to vote at all. And as social media has shown us, there's nothing more engaging and motivating than outrage.

So both sides of US politics, and their surrogates in the media, are incentivised to stir up outrage against their opponent, leading to a more divided country in the long run.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#375

Post by joebob42 »

whoknowswhat11 wrote: post #342

Here's the reality - I'd take google and apple's privacy protections related to my data over many govts out there? Is that a bad thing to say? Back to the regular anti google / google news / apple programming.

Oh yeah of course in a heartbeat. I think the main objection I have to apple / google hoarding my data isn't actually apple / google having them, it's that the government can make them fork it over and so them having it means the government does by proxy.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#376

Post by nl »

dane-pgp wrote: post #289
sigotirandolas wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the parent was referring to the "five reasons to leave home", as far as I know vaccine passports haven't been implemented in Australia yet.

> vaccine passports haven't been implemented in Australia yet. The lack of vaccine passports is of little consolation when its citizens have already accepted this: "The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person." https://w…

That is specifically about enforcement of home quarantine as an alternative to hotel quarantine for interstate travel. It's not generally applicable in any way.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#377

Post by seanmcdirmid »

yonaguska wrote: post #232
wrycoder wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Democrats say that voting is being discouraged. What is being discouraged is invalid votes, to diminish fraud. Republicans would love to encourage an authentic black vote.

I'm not sure this is true, even as a black republican with several black republican voting family members. My experience is that most black voters are more conservative, but almost always vote based on race rather than policy. This is obviously changing, to skew towards black voters being less conservative- but calling candidates racist will usually trump all other values that go into the voting decision.

Black and Hispanic voters are more socially conservative on average, but they vote for the people that don’t actively work against their interests, as anyone who isn’t a push over should.

I’ll gladly vote for a Republican if I feel like the other side is working against my interests, ideology isn’t a determining factor.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#378

Post by mr_toad »

throw_nbvc1234 wrote: post #167
Tronno wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Strong men create good times. Or sometimes they just kill each other in cycles of violence spanning generations. > Good times create weak men. Or they enable amazing things like the internet, modern medicine, and empires that last 1000 years. Sorry, but I've seen this pithy quote before and I wish it would go away - it's simply not true.

The foundations of the internet and computing were built by people from the cold war when modern civilization was a technical glitch away from ending at any given time. Half the stuff in networking is decades old, written by people who are decades older then that and raised by the generation before them. Implying the internet is a byproduct of the recent "good times" seems a bit disingenuous. The internet (FAANG if y…

The foundations of the internet were laid during the post war boom era. It was considered by some a golden age. The modern internet is a product of successive booms in the 90’s and 2000’s.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#379

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

asdff wrote: post #275
perl4ever wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much Australia is influenced by people who loathe the US and move from it to Australia because it's far away and yet Anglophone and "western".

Probably very few. Liberals who are alienated with the U.S. would sooner move to Canada for the healthcare, conservatives alienated with the U.S. would sooner be dead than be alive in Australia without guns if their bumper stickers are to be believed.

It’s a misconception that Oz has no guns.

In 1997 they banned “defensive” firearms. The guns you want because they work well. Semiautos, center fire handguns, pump shotguns. Bolt actions are still possible to get, but not great at self-defense, or overthrowing your government.

Side note… in 1997 these guns were banned, and crime fell. As it turns out though, not only was crime already going down, but there was an increase of 2x police per capita, and curiously crime in the USA fell at a greater rate with no gun ban or large increase in police, crime was high in the 90s for some reason, some people say lead paint bans but the causation is weak.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#380

Post by Nursie »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #365
girvo wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another senior SE in Brisbane I can 100% back up what BrissyCoder here is saying. Its even more so right now, if you're up for contracting. $1000+ a day is common. Kind of nuts, but hey its been good for my wallet.

1000 AUD is about 100 USD an hour. That's laughably low for any Brisbane sized city in the states. Not nuts at all.

You have to remember that tax regimes are different in different places. In the UK I’ve been on about $120 an hour, equivalent after tax to a salary of about $200k, and your health care is already paid.

Comparatively it seems like contractors in the USA get punished by the tax system.

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