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Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

korte.co

81–90 of 239 posts

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#82

The fact that government agencies, particularly those that deal with international concerns like these are using non sovereign tech for communications is mind-blowing. They might as well use public gmail.. atleast it would be cheaper. If you want it not exposed directly, host it yourself and take measures to secure it for intended eyes only. This should be common sense.

I remember 15 years ago when our Minister of Foreign affairs was gleefully telling a gadget-vlogger about his personal setup where he was not using 'official email', but his own private Blackberry / iPhone (I forgot) and email for communicating all things. Out of 'frustration with how long it took for official IT to get things sorted'. Video is still online even: https://vimeo.com/13224190

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#83
post #70

The fact that government agencies, particularly those that deal with international concerns like these are using non sovereign tech for communications is mind-blowing. They might as well use public gmail.. atleast it would be cheaper. If you want it not exposed directly, host it yourself and take measures to secure it for intended eyes only. This should be common sense.

I don't think Americans understand what US used to mean for the rest of the world. America was supposed to be the next step of humanity, a new land stripped from the ills of the old world where you invest or you go to build things, where your past or identity wasn't the primary concern but your dreams your abilities were. It wasn't nationalistic place, it was open to all and pretty much it was the group work of human…

This reminds me of a 1995 Norwegian song, freely translated by me and chatgtp:

    We dreamed of America
    where the soft wind lives.
    We dreamed of America
    where honey flowers grow,
    where the sky is vast and blue
    with stars and stripes upon it too.
    We dreamed of America,
    but not anymore,
    no, not anymore.

    I don't know when people first began dreaming of America.
    Long before Columbus, people dreamed of America, I think.
    A place of everlasting flowers where everyone was free and happy, and
    no one had to take off their hat for anyone unless they wanted to themselves.
    A smiling paradise where love lasts forever,
    and old age is beautiful, a place without any smell.

    In 1945—before that too, but certainly in 1945—I knew what I was going to be
    when I grew up.
    I was going to be an *American*.

    That spring, the first films from the Pacific War arrived,
    where the Americans stood with bent knees on jungle paths and shot Japanese soldiers with U.S. carbines.
    The Japanese were ugly, with protruding teeth and protruding ribs,
    while the Americans were brave, handsome, clean-cut, and immortal.
    And even if they did die, they died with a courageous smile and said:

    "Give this letter to my mother; she will understand."

    While the Japanese died like grubs and worms,
    and we felt no pity for them.

    Besides being ugly, they were portrayed as horribly stupid—so stupid that they spoke broken English even when talking to each other.

    I know that we dreamed of America well into the 1960s.
    A scentless land beyond the sea,
    where everyone had cars and white teeth.

    I don't know exactly when it stopped.

    But one day in the 1960s, we not only stopped loving America as a god;
    we began hating America as a fallen god.

    And nothing falls so heavily, so hard, and so deep
    as a fallen god
    who turns out not to be a god at all,
    but merely America.

    Then America was blamed not only for the Vietnam War and environmental disasters,
    but also, for example, for car culture.
    And the greatest share of the blame fell on the man who discovered America.

    Now, 487 years after his death, Christopher Columbus is blamed not only for the slave trade from West Africa,
    but also for the murder of Kennedy,
    and for all the worlds traffic accidents.

    Now they say Columbus was a bastard.

    Because it was he who discovered America in 1492.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#84
post #65
post #55

We've known this since the Snowden leaks 13 years ago. In a couple of years there will probably be a president in the US that will be more palatable for the european political class and we'll all be able to go back to pretending this doesn't happen. After all the EU is too compromised energetically, militarily, industrially, burocratically and democratically to ever achieve independence. Talking about digital soverei…

Downvotes for stating a reasonable, and probably correct argument. Europe's biggest problem (I do not mean just the EU, I mean everyone from the UK to Russia) is that it is in denial about its decline, weakness and irrelevance to the rest of the world. The UK is a bit of an exception in being aware of it and actually talking about it. That is about it.

The EU in just the past year has signed deals with Latin America and India in addition to the already existing ones with South Korea, Canada, Japan etc.

It has positioned itself at the center of the world's largest free trade zone.

It's managed to replace US contributions to Ukraine and looks like its in the process of bloodying Russia's nose.

Reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#85
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of sums up my sentiment. All throughout my adult life the US (for all its apparent faults) was to me a shining example of progress and humanity. It was the best large scale implementation of human rights, laws, and democracy. Sure it was far from perfect but “as good as it gets, for now” Became very disillusioned with that image of the US in the last couple of years. Maybe it’s always been like that - but t…

> was to me a shining example of progress and humanity. Which country was the US bombing to the ground at this period you're reminiscing on?

You don't get it, the US government could have been bad or good but that wasn't the concern when it comes to America. America was a separate thing from the folks in Washington, some politicians and might have done very bad things or the military industrial complex might have pushed the politicians to start wars but this wasn't what America stands for. Americans used to be the good guys, even when bombing kindergartens in the Middle East because whoever was responsible for that would have had paid for it in front of the American legal system or American people.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#86
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this about EU Chat Control? Because that was mostly pushed from Denmark no?

Perhaps it originated from there. But EU Chat Control is brought up again and again and again for a vote. They'll continue until some version of it is passed. And then they'll go further with the next privacy infringing regulation to be building on top of it. It is really disheartening for privacy activists, but that is probably the strategy. Wear people out, and push the regulation through when resistance wanes. Not…

Yes, which is why I commented why I did - poster was pointing at the Netherlands which seemed to misconstrue the current state of the problem.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#87

The fact that government agencies, particularly those that deal with international concerns like these are using non sovereign tech for communications is mind-blowing. They might as well use public gmail.. atleast it would be cheaper. If you want it not exposed directly, host it yourself and take measures to secure it for intended eyes only. This should be common sense.

It's mind blowing that government bureaucrats would be permitted to use commercial providers for official business at all. The provider being foreign is merely the cherry on top. I was going to ask why something like mail.gov.nl doesn't exist but it turns out [0] (edit: wikipedia is full of lies) that they don't have a reserved second level domain for official government services to use? Is this really one of the cou…

Privatization: in much of the (neo)liberal West, it is seen as better to use commercial providers. They're supposed to be cheaper and better, because they're not using (union) civil service staff.

Yes, this results in enshittification.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#88
post #85
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was to me a shining example of progress and humanity. Which country was the US bombing to the ground at this period you're reminiscing on?

You don't get it, the US government could have been bad or good but that wasn't the concern when it comes to America. America was a separate thing from the folks in Washington, some politicians and might have done very bad things or the military industrial complex might have pushed the politicians to start wars but this wasn't what America stands for. Americans used to be the good guys, even when bombing kindergarten…

> because whoever was responsible for that would have had paid for it in front of the American legal system or American people

That literally never happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_massacre?wprov=sfla1

> By June 17, 2008, six defendants had their cases dropped and a seventh was found not guilty.[5] The only one of the eight charged to face punishment was Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich. On October 3, 2007, the Article 32 hearing investigating officer recommended that charges of murder be dropped and Wuterich be tried for negligent homicide in the deaths of two women and five children.[6] Further charges of assault and manslaughter were ultimately dropped. Wuterich pled guilty to the only remaining charge, one count of negligent dereliction of duty, and was convicted on January 24, 2012.[7][8]

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#89
post #88
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't get it, the US government could have been bad or good but that wasn't the concern when it comes to America. America was a separate thing from the folks in Washington, some politicians and might have done very bad things or the military industrial complex might have pushed the politicians to start wars but this wasn't what America stands for. Americans used to be the good guys, even when bombing kindergarten…

> because whoever was responsible for that would have had paid for it in front of the American legal system or American people That literally never happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_massacre?wprov=sfla1 > By June 17, 2008, six defendants had their cases dropped and a seventh was found not guilty.[5] The only one of the eight charged to face punishment was Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich. On October 3, 200…

It doesn't matter, that was the perception and the expectation. Americans themselves were used to seen as blameless, since those things were against what US stands for.

Re: Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails

#90
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump was elected . Twice. It was not a fluke, not a once in a lifetime event, he's a symptom of wider processes happening in the US. The world has changed and the old order is not coming back

Half the countries in Europe has their own Trump-equivalent politician heading one of the largest parties, and yet Europeans are imagining it's something happening "in the US" while they sleepwalk into disaster.

Yes, and: these are the same picture. They're all promoted by Russian-backed influencers on US-owned social media, or indigenous US racists. We've got Elon inciting race riots in Belfast now; several people left homeless after they were firebombed out.

A lot of this was laundered through Hungary: https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-viktor-orban-favorit... ; hopefully some of those involved can be jailed by the incoming administration for misusing government funds.

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