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A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

michaelgeist.ca

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Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#11

Post by brandon272 »

failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

The effort to erode privacy is so much greater than the effort to preserve it. Governments around the world are like a dog with a bone when it comes to increasing surveillance.

An apathetic and ill informed public doesn’t help matters.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#12

Post by Iolaum »

Waterluvian wrote: post #5

It feels like there’s this weird layer to domestic and international politics where you do a lot of signalling to one audience while simultaneously winking at other audiences that you’re not actually serious. (I can never tell who is getting winked at…) I feel like WYSIWYG politics is what most of us want, but probably doesn’t actually work. The Ned Stark character that is righteous and right and quickly meets the he…

While I agree this is the case, I think this is a consequence of low education for the general public and low quality of the public discourse. If the quality of those two goes up, then WYSIWYG politics will emerge as a preferred choice.

I only wish I knew of possible ways for us to get there :(

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#13

Post by airstrike »

Iolaum wrote: post #12
Waterluvian wrote: post #5

It feels like there’s this weird layer to domestic and international politics where you do a lot of signalling to one audience while simultaneously winking at other audiences that you’re not actually serious. (I can never tell who is getting winked at…) I feel like WYSIWYG politics is what most of us want, but probably doesn’t actually work. The Ned Stark character that is righteous and right and quickly meets the he…

While I agree this is the case, I think this is a consequence of low education for the general public and low quality of the public discourse. If the quality of those two goes up, then WYSIWYG politics will emerge as a preferred choice. I only wish I knew of possible ways for us to get there :(

Unfortunately, both low education for the general public and low quality of the public discourse exist by design.

The only possible way to remedy this is to maximize your own ability to exert power, possibly by becoming massively rich, and then hope it doesn't corrupt you enough along the way such that you can still enact good in the end.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#14

Post by watwut »

failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

> With all the libertarian millionaires and billionaires swirling around silicon valley

Those are pro-surveillance, pro-repair-prevention, pro-fascism.

Libertarianism is about your freedom to restrict others, if you are rich and powerful.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#15

Post by olyjohn »

failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

Because they're not libertarians. They're greedy narcissists who what to do whatever they want to anybody and just say that it's libertarian.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#16

Post by HPsquared »

watwut wrote: post #14
failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

> With all the libertarian millionaires and billionaires swirling around silicon valley Those are pro-surveillance, pro-repair-prevention, pro-fascism. Libertarianism is about your freedom to restrict others, if you are rich and powerful.

Freedom to put whatever you want in the EULA.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#17

Post by jambalaya8 »

mcsniff wrote: post #6
failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

Because libertarians generally want fewer laws, not more.

that doesn't mean they don't want some of the 'right laws'. otherwise they would be anarchists and communists not libertarians.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#18

Post by nostrademons »

failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

The libertarian technologist space specifically prefers technological solutions because they don't depend upon fallible and corruptible humans implementing the laws. This is the ideological wing that gave us the PC, encryption, the Gnu project, free software, the Internet, P2P filesharing, Bittorrent, social media, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tor, Freenet, Mullvad and other VPNs, Monero, etc.

When it comes to laws, libertarianism faces an internal contradiction. A libertarian believes that they shouldn't be able to control other people; therefore, if a company wants to make an unrepairable unrootable surveillance device and the population consents to using it, the libertarian believes that it is not their right to interfere. The only thing they can do is create a better repairable rootable device, which is how we got GCC, Linux, Ubuntu, Firefox, Graphene, etc.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#19

Post by Cider9986 »

watwut wrote: post #14
failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

> With all the libertarian millionaires and billionaires swirling around silicon valley Those are pro-surveillance, pro-repair-prevention, pro-fascism. Libertarianism is about your freedom to restrict others, if you are rich and powerful.

Whereas traditional Democrats and Republicans are all protecting privacy?

Thomas Massie is a wealthy libertarian and introduced a bill to protect privacy.

Re: A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention

#20

Post by Teever »

failbuffer wrote: post #3

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them? For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks. Wit…

As a Canadian user of HN it's really frustrating to see a rare post about a Canadian subject be immediately dominated by a thread about American politics.

Twenty words into your post and you've pivoted to the US.

What mechanism or discussion can we have to encourage the users to show some restraint on this?

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