Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police • Hacker News Board

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#321

Post by pepperoni_pizza » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

klustregrif wrote: post #229

philipwhiuk wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Success in what exactly? There a very strong political movement in Denmark towards protecting privacy rights Doesn't seem to be working.

By what metric? The fact that he got arrested for stalking the prime ministers children and releasing private information speaks toward protecting privacy not an issue if lacking privacy. You can’t just declare “I am an anti violence activist” then go out and beat up politicians and declare that the system has a problem with violence when you get arrested. This is the equivalent of what he’s done. He claims to suppor…

> By what metric?

By the metric of Denmark being the leading force being Chat Control, Palantir driven panopticon and worse.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#322

Post by koonsolo » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

seb1204 wrote: post #277

koonsolo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it is not. Europeans can have guns, and there was a recent case in Belgium where such a thing happened.

I'd say it is. Yes there are people that own guns or hunting rifles. Most still don't think about guns or shooting first. Guns are supposed to be locked in a safe etc. All that does obviously not apply to a criminal who does not follow the law.

> Most still don't think about guns or shooting first.

You base this on what? I know plenty of gun owners where I live, and most would pull open their safe the moment they hear something during the night. I'm willing to bet most gun safes are located in the bedroom.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#323

Post by klibertp » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:11 PM UTC

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #284

calgoo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between terrorists and freedom fighters is a matter of which side of the fence you stand on. They are basically the same thing, especially these days when you get marked as terrorist for talking bad about the people in power.

yet you fail to account for the fact that said people wouldn't wouldn't be in power did terrorism not have occurred in the first place. How many bad leaders in the west resulting directly or indirectly from terror attacks?

About as many as bad terrorist groups that began due to catastrophically bad decisions of leaders in the West. I'm sorry to break it to you - the plural you - but all the terrorists that are not traditionally domestic (local leftist/rightist extremists are everywhere, after all) - and the fact they are against the West - is simply a consequence of Western politics. Imperialism and neocollonialism are real, actual policies, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that. If such policies hit locales where it's not culturally wrong to die for a cause, it's obvious you'll get terrorists after a while. I suspect this was calculated risk until it stopped being that: the locals got their own exploding sticks and decided to use them.

It's so incredibly sad to watch: for decades, tons of people made mostly rational (from their point of view) decisions, yet each step inevitably brought us closer and closer to the current situation. Add a few cultural, social, and personal pathological cases into the mix, and what you have is basically a speedrun to 9/11.

Note that I'm not justifying terror attacks, just saying they are a very predictable consequence of decades of policy-making.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#324

Post by Folcon » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

Quothling wrote: post #106

pembrook wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think he goes too far at all. If politicians are attempting to undermine your children’s right to privacy forever , and yet these same politicians don’t like when this is being done to their own children…it shows either an astonishing level of hypocrisy and/or stupidity. Europe is filled with these types of authoritarian urbanites, who make decisions from an elitist “i know what’s best for you” attitude while…

This is what I meant by the grey zone. I personally think it goes too far, but I agree with the point you make here. Where it becomes problematic is that the method does not get the point across to any audience which doesn't already agree with them. Compare this to Jesper Graugaard, who is know locally as the "Chromebook-dad". He's been campaigning against big tech in our schools for like a decade, and after 6 years…

Out of curiosity, what is Jesper's strategy?

    > He's been campaigning against big tech in our schools for like a decade

This doesn't tell me much about how he campaigns

    > I'm Danish and lars kragh andersen is a bit of a grey zone. He obviously goes over the line, he tried to put GPS trackers on the cars of ministers. He "stalks" their families, and dox their children online. He gave an interview on how he'd ignore people carrying a kilo gram of weed when he was a cop because he doesn't agree with the "war on drugs".
    > On the flip-side, he's sort of right. I assume that putting a GPS tracker on the car of our minister of justice is illegal, but that same minister (Peter Hummelgaard) is one of the key forces behind anti-encryption here in Europe. Similarily the politicians he stalk and harras are pro Palintir getting access to all our data, so Lars Andersen is sort of giving the politicians a taste of what they want to give everyone.
    > He goes way too far though. Especially if he actually wants change, the way he "protests" is directly damaging his own cause, since nobody is going to sympathise with harrassing children.
    > I suspect next time he'll have his cameras running with backup powers though.

By contrast, I've got a much clearer idea of Lars and his strategies by a description of his actions

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#325

Post by catlifeonmars » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

joe_mamba wrote: post #205

justinclift wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What kind of broken logic is this? It's not even slightly broken. It's about the people responsible for destroying the lives of those they're supposed to be helping, instead abusing those people for personal gain. Is that really something you think should keep heading in the same abusive direction it's been going for many years? :(

[flagged]

> You think you want that but you don't actually. IF you do sincerely want that, then I sincerely hope you get what you want, but both ways for you and only you, while the rest of us stay isolated as spectators.

Nobody wants this. This is the result of the breakdown of trust in the judicial and democratic processes. GP is just acting the zeitgeist.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#326

Post by pembrook » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

Lutger wrote: post #262

pembrook wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you and I disagree. I don’t think Jesper is focused on the right issues. Big tech (private companies who largely just care about profits) and foreign governments (the Americans for example), are way lower on my “things Europe should be worried” about list. They’re there of course, but lower. Private companies don’t have the ability to ruin your life in the same way your own government does. They just want you…

> Private companies don’t have the ability to ruin your life in the same way your own government does. They just want your money. And what happens when your money is gone? What happens when the government has no money anymore because the super rich took it all? Your life turns to shit real fast when you can't afford housing, healthcare and food. I get when you are in an authoritarian country, or one on the path to be…

You’re fundamentally worried about the wrong thing.

It’s an extremely common bias on the left just as the anti-government bias on the right.

Both public and private entities are capable of abusing power.

Only one group however is legally entitled to take 50% of your money regardless of the quality of their product, by holding a gun to your head. They can even take more via the phantom tax of inflation using deficit spending (as is happening now all over Europe). This group is the one you should fear more if looking at it from first principles.

The current runaway deficits across Europe and rising political unrest prove this.

The only thing companies can do to “take” your money is offer you a service that’s better than all alternatives that you chose to buy voluntarily.

If you think that’s the bigger authoritarian risk something is wrong with your mental model of how the world works.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#327

Post by DrSiemer » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #280

DrSiemer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the system is rigged heavily against you, relying on it to affect change does feel like a losing strategy. The fact that such a large part of the population supports literal murder could also be considered a political statement. One that would not have been expressed so strongly without what happened. So much of this madness could be resolved with a simple income cap. Musk’s wealth grew by $1 million per minute ov…

Are you talking about income or actual wealth? Your income may remain constant while your wealth rises significantly (say... because your investments are doing well, because you inherited... etc). The two are often confused when talking about (tech) billionaires.

Wealth, not income. The statistic is about net worth growth. Saying "that's wealth, not income" doesn't refute it. It just clarifies the mechanism.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#328

Post by andsoitis » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC

gaiagraphia wrote: post #301

andsoitis wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private companies want your money but they don’t take it. You give it to them in exchange for something.

It feels like I'm force to pay tax which then evaporates into the pockets of private companies like Palantir, though... I mean, you arguably can't even fully participate in the society you pay taxes to help run if you don't have a Google or Apple spycube.

That's the government taking your money and deciding how to apply it. It isn't a private company taking your money.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#329

Post by themaninthedark » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC

soco wrote: post #233

joe_mamba wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A successful case might be Luigi Mangione. Sorry, but how was that murder successful? Did it achieve the effect that everyone is getting cheaper healthcare now? OR, on the contrary, it only achieved that CEOs are now getting more anonymity and private security, while the plebs are getting more invasive law enforcement tracking like Palantir and Flock shoved up their ass to prevent them from doing something like that…

How would be the US now without Luigi Mangione? Would you have cheaper healthcare? Would Palantir or Flock disappear?

You don't understand how it works, imagine a world where 9/11 never happened.

Do you think that this alternative universe would not have the equivalent of TSA and Five Eyes?

It would. These things do not exist because $event happened, they exist because they are useful to those in power.

Look at the city of Trinidad, TX for example: Lady is arrested because of Facebook about how she heard that brown colored water coming from pipes has hospitalized people. Another guy because he is protesting the arrest. Her crime is "Felony false alarm". His crime "Disorderly conduct".

Both laws created, I am sure, to combat issues the community or state has had to deal with. But also able to be used to suppress people those in power dislike.

Re: Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police

#330

Post by jopsen » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 3:26 PM UTC

anfogoat wrote: post #231

Quothling wrote: post #22

I'm Danish and lars kragh andersen is a bit of a grey zone. He obviously goes over the line, he tried to put GPS trackers on the cars of ministers. He "stalks" their families, and dox their children online. He gave an interview on how he'd ignore people carrying a kilo gram of weed when he was a cop because he doesn't agree with the "war on drugs". On the flip-side, he's sort of right. I assume that putting a GPS tra…

This is interesting and all but is ultimately just an aside. Are the law enforcement actions on display here legal in Denmark? If not, surely there's prison sentences in store for anyone involved. Right?

Probably not illegal, questionable ethics. Which could have consequences, but probably not.

Regardless, this is enormously dumb. If you want to search and arrest an activist who crosses the line, you make it as boring as possible.