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The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

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Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#221

I’m reminded by a speech by Frederick Douglass [1] that >This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these w…

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Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As each generation is born not caring about privacy and posting everything for likes, I fear more are being coached to not have privacy as a priority.

Strong men make good times. Good times make weak men. Weak men make bad times. Bad times make strong men.

If this little bit of so-called wisdom were true, one would expect Russia to be going through some good times now given the state of the Soviet Union in the late 70s until its dissolution. It seems about as realistic as one should expect such a simplistic reduction of an insanely complex world to be: not at all.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#223
post #213
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in MA. People complained about it all the time. Same goes for when I lived in NYC. I do not get the sense that the political climate in CA is any different than those were when I lived there, excepting perhaps San Francisco which is, incidentally, the same discourse as is happening about NYC in NYC right now too (lots of friends and my family still lives there). I’m not trying to qualify my love for CA…

> I used to live in MA. People complained about it all the time. Same goes for when I lived in NYC. The difference is you don't often hear complaints about MA unless you also live in MA. At this point, pretty much the entire country is sick of hearing Californian's complain... I think the issues in NYC are similar to that of California's mega-cities (LA, SF), which is why we hear more about them. These cities went fr…

> The difference is you don't often hear complaints about MA unless you also live in MA. At this point, pretty much the entire country is sick of hearing Californian's complain...

That’s because “SF is hell” is a good media story along with “tech bros hate poor people.”

> I think the issues in NYC are similar to that of California's mega-cities (LA, SF), which is why we hear more about them. These cities went from lawlessness and chaos, to law-and-order cities a few decades ago. Things got great, and then collectively people forgot what it used to be like... and fell into the same trappings. Today, these three mega-cities are facing lawlessness and chaos again - and I predict a law-and-order decade is coming soon.

I don’t disagree; but I think it’s notable that NYC is the other big tech hotspot. I give it five years before Miami is in the news for the same.

> Anecdotally (which isn't worth much I know), and having lived in CA my entire life, I have noticed an increase of complaints from fellow CA citizens. People are tired of the fires, power outages, water shortages, homelessness, etc.

I wonder if this is just because we’ve gotten older? I certainly didn’t care when I was 22. I definitely care now.

> All are related to policy decisions made sometimes decades ago, and we're just now paying for it. I think if you truly love where you live, recognizing these issues is a necessity. Pretending issues are the same everywhere and are something that "just happens" or are caused by external forces is akin to keeping our collective heads in the sand. Decisions have consequences - so we better make good ones.

I agree with all of that. I wish everyone did.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#224

I’m reminded by a speech by Frederick Douglass [1] that >This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these w…

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You could start with the big red call to action in TFA.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#225
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please make your substantive points without calling names. No one is saying you owe your least favorite senators better, but you owe the community better if you're posting here. I can't link to the guidelines because I'm on my phone - but this is in there!

It's one thing to demand not calling ordinary people names, but Feinstein isn't an ordinary person. If one can't call a person in power names, that implies many things you probably didn't want to imply.

That he’s not a free speech absolutist? big deal, nobody is no platform is, thats the expected default behavior everywhere you go and there is zero reason why HN would be different. I’m not even going to go into how this is a private platform with clearly stated rules for you because it doesn't even matter, just take the L

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#226
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Or the "USA PATRIOT" Act, as it's full name spells. "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism". But by calling it "patriot", it implies that you're not a patriot if you don't support it. Never mind that modern American "patriotism" isn't anything of the sort, but is much closer to nationalism.

It's blatant propaganda, but Americans continue to lie to themselves that they live in the freest country in the world.

The real problem is there isn't any better country. Zero countries currently compete with America for greater freedom.

Please let me know if you know of any because I'm getting absolutely tired of working four months for free each year, knowing that my tax dollars are paying for goods and services from which I'll never be able to benefit.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#227

I’m reminded by a speech by Frederick Douglass [1] that >This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these w…

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No, you're just part of the third of people that one third can depend on to do nothing while they try to destroy the reamining third. Discouraging others is just a bonus.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an information environment, security and privacy are the same thing. The terms may have different connotations culturally, but good security-in-depth is the same set of practices that enable digital privacy, because the objective is the same: prevent leakage of facts.

You can have E2EE to the service provider, but they can be free to rummage through your data if they choose to or are coerced to by a legal demand from an authority. But it eliminates the average schmoe from going through that data. Is that adequate security? Is that adequate privacy? This is what bills like EARN IT and its ilk are positing with backdoors et al. It depends on your threat model. If a warrant opens a d…

E2EE refers to fully encrypted communication between end-users of a service, hence end-to-end. If one of the ends is the service provider, the term doesn't apply.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#229
post #7

A reminder that "you have nothing to hide" argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power: Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused [1]: "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... [2]: https://reason.com/2022/07/26/police-can-access-your-ring-ca... [3]: https://reason.com/2021/04/26/warrantless-border-s…

Was there a black mirror episode regarding that phrase? If not I think they missed an opportunity to show people that everyone has something to hide.

I remember an episode starring Toby Kebbell that had his character submitting to authorities to review his sense-perspective audiovisual recordings.

Re: The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

#230
post #7

A reminder that "you have nothing to hide" argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power: Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused [1]: "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... [2]: https://reason.com/2022/07/26/police-can-access-your-ring-ca... [3]: https://reason.com/2021/04/26/warrantless-border-s…

Many seem to not realize that privacy is not about having something to hide (I guess that would be secrecy), but about the right to keep things to yourself. Those are two different concepts.
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