To give a government absolute control like this is insane.
The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
121–130 of 158 posts
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do this. But more and more often, people are responding: "You're not the government." So it doesn't work as well as people think it does.
But I am . Your neighbors work for The Government. Your community members make up The Government. It's government by us, made of us, and for us. It's us. There are humans working in government with access to the data. And any new government employee or elected or appointed person from your community will have access to the data... We have to remind people that The Government isn't some distant "other" - it's made of…
Right, and by requiring a warrant to dig though my shit, at least there's one person with legal training who's ostensibly concerned about my constitutionally protected rights involved in the process.
Just like the priesthood apparently attracts pedophiles because of the opportunities it offers, law enforcement is made of people, and some of those people will have gotten in to it opportunities it provides.
Having access to creep on people with surveillance systems is going to attract the type of person who wants to creep on people with surveillance systems unless those systems are rigidly designed to prevent misuse.
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#123I wish we would stop emphasizing the social justice/accuracy concerns so heavily when talking about this. Starting that way will cause a huge segment of the population to switch off as soon as you start talking. Imagine it works perfectly, and a three-letter agency with practically zero oversight, transparency, or accountability is collecting an accurate history of every single thing you do--everywhere you go, who yo…
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Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#124I wish we would stop emphasizing the social justice/accuracy concerns so heavily when talking about this. Starting that way will cause a huge segment of the population to switch off as soon as you start talking. Imagine it works perfectly, and a three-letter agency with practically zero oversight, transparency, or accountability is collecting an accurate history of every single thing you do--everywhere you go, who yo…
> the social justice/accuracy concerns Unfortunately there has been a major cultural shift in the national ACLU. They are now largely uninterested in defending strong sense personal freedom and instead much more interested in social justice. :( (The frown isn't that I think such causes are bad, but only that I don't think that the loss of a strong defense of constitutional free speech is good). If you think I'm exagg…
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Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, I know a lot of people who are ok with that. They're very much of the opinion, "Well, I'm doing nothing wrong, so I don't care. Especially if it helps catch bad guys". Not really sure how to fight that.
- do you know anyone who has been stalked, harassed, worse? or: do you have kids? - yes (hopefully) - would you tolerate use of software that allows users to more effectively stalk, harass, or worse? [especially your kids?] - no (hopefully) - are you aware that software with that power exists today, and that since at least 2007 some of its users have been convicted of using it for stalking/harassing/worse? - no, tell…
> - would you tolerate use of software that allows users to more effectively stalk, harass, or worse? [especially your kids?]
It's easy to dream up ideal scenarios, such as the above (even though they are almost never realistic). For example, one possible unexpected response to the above question might very well be:
> "Such as Tor?"
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#126I wish we would stop emphasizing the social justice/accuracy concerns so heavily when talking about this. Starting that way will cause a huge segment of the population to switch off as soon as you start talking. Imagine it works perfectly, and a three-letter agency with practically zero oversight, transparency, or accountability is collecting an accurate history of every single thing you do--everywhere you go, who yo…
Probably not accurate. Many more people will switch on due to the social justice angle than will respond to the libertarian aspect.
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#127Pervasive surveillance is inevitable. ACLU would be better served fighting to protect rights that exist in the constitution (the second amendment) than rights that do not (“privacy” right not to be tracked in public).
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#128I remember a time when it was good manners to ask before taking someone's picture.
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
And my response would be, "My party voted in the government, so yeah, we voted for the right to look through your phone. Now hand it over or do you want to be a law breaking criminal too?"
And you just lost the argument. There are multiple failures here: - To many folks, this sounds conspiracy-theory-ish, and they will just yeah-uhuh until you go away. - Your actual point (that we may have certain comforting legal protections now does not mean that future governments will respect the same restrictions) will leave a lot of folks cold; whatever hysterics they may get up to when debating politics, most fo…
I seem to have had some success changing minds when I talk to folks about how maybe you're okay with today's government knowing everything about you, but tomorrow's government might be different, nevertheless your data is still around.
I haven't actually tried the approach of role-playing a totalitarian lackey in real life. I get the sense that it could come off as too combative or seem too unrealistic and drive folks away from whatever point I was trying to get across.
I get the complacency. I also largely trust the government employees and agencies given we still have a functioning democracy and mostly intact civil rights. Nevertheless, I see too much erosion of it, so I'm happy whenever we can get together and agree on repairing it.
Re: The FBI Is Tracking Our Faces in Secret, and We’re Suing
#130I wish we would stop emphasizing the social justice/accuracy concerns so heavily when talking about this. Starting that way will cause a huge segment of the population to switch off as soon as you start talking. Imagine it works perfectly, and a three-letter agency with practically zero oversight, transparency, or accountability is collecting an accurate history of every single thing you do--everywhere you go, who yo…
But the accuracy point is a big deal. The fact that it doesn't work well should frighten the people who claim they are OK with it because they have nothing to hide. (However much we disagree with them.)
Imagine being thrown in jail because somebody who looks like you committed a crime. (You didn't like the social justice angle, but actually, racial minorities get that all the time in the US.) "The computer said so" is going to be convincing evidence to a lot of people, even if it shouldn't be.