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Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

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Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#91

Post by einhverfr »

I am an American and I just want to point out that my latest startup (http://www.efficito.com) is a Limited UK company, and my co-founder is from the Netherlands. It would certainly be to my advantage if things change. We offer cloud-based ERP, and you might be interested to know our main hosting server is currently in the Czech Republic. We are also paranoid about security (all access is encrtpted, and we are looking at encrypted storage for virtual machines, and much more).

I would love for things to change. I really would. What I worry though is about attention span of even decision makers on the business side, and what the alternatives are. The ideal situation would be a bunch of smaller private social networks able to interop (the Diaspora model) but it isn't clear there is a financial way to make this work.

So I hope it changes. I really do. I just am somewhat pessimistic :-P

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#92

Post by a3n »

dataisfun wrote: post #72
a3n wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an American, and I think things will change - for the worse. I'd like to think that if morality or the Constitution didn't stop this shit, at least bidness would. But I think what will really happen is that the administration, and the bureaucrats, and the security "services" in general will double down, be much more secretive about what they do, be much better at what they do (grants coming soon to a computer sci…

Your last line is a really interesting one. Most governments probably are to some extent self aware, insofar as there's an executive branch. But I think the self awareness you are referring to is a kind of secretive adaption of sorts, where the response is not aligned necessary with the public interest, but with the interest of those in power (to stay in power).

Exactly.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#93

Post by jacques_chester »

greendestiny wrote: post #85
jacques_chester wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow you. Americans are, theoretically, in a much stronger position vs NSA snooping. US law is meant to make it illegal for their spy agencies to look inwards and the US Constitution has its famous "search and seizure" clause which can, if you find the right judge, have some formidable teeth. As Australian citizens we have no such protections and we have no standing in US courts to get any restitutio…

In the same way that Americans are in a stronger position vs NSA snooping Australians are in a stronger position vs our own snooping.

As I noted elsewhere in the thread, Echelon taught us that the agencies can circumvent these protections by agreeing to spy on each other's citizens and then forward the intelligence.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#94

Post by snowwrestler »

jacques_chester wrote: post #77
snowwrestler wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans tend to have higher standards for protecting the privacy of the personal data of their citizens from access and use by private corporations. But what the U.S. NSA is doing is sifting data for connections to foreigners who are suspected of being terrorists. I would be shocked if Euro intelligence agencies are not doing the same thing.

"Everybody's doing it!" isn't really a good excuse once you turn about 12 years old.

I'm not making an excuse. If the theory is that folks will pull out of U.S.-based cloud services, then the question is, where would they go instead?

The U.S. data-mining program has been revealed. I would not assume the lack of revelations from other nations is definitive proof that those nations aren't doing similar things. In the absence of data it is very easy to make convenient assumptions.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#96

Post by jacques_chester »

snowwrestler wrote: post #94
jacques_chester wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everybody's doing it!" isn't really a good excuse once you turn about 12 years old.

I'm not making an excuse. If the theory is that folks will pull out of U.S.-based cloud services, then the question is, where would they go instead? The U.S. data-mining program has been revealed. I would not assume the lack of revelations from other nations is definitive proof that those nations aren't doing similar things. In the absence of data it is very easy to make convenient assumptions.

True.

The old rules still apply. If you can't afford someone else to know something, you have to encrypt it in motion and at rest.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#97

Post by u2328 »

I think 'destroyed' is a strong word, and it's still early. Damaged? That's probably fair.

I wonder if that's a major reason the Google-centric 'The Internship' movie kinda bombed this weekend. I mean, it might just be a crappy movie (didn't see the reviews), but I do suspect a lot of people weren't really into seeing a movie about Google after all this.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#99

Post by notimetorelax »

rdl wrote: post #60

IMO it should be a much bigger deal for totally commodity services (IMAP/SMTP, file storage, etc.) vs. "unique" services (it's not like you could run your own Facebook server in Iceland...)

There are local social networks, to give an example from Russia: vk.com, odnoklassniki.ru, etc. And these are more popular than Facebook.

Re: Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

#100

Post by danenania »

rayiner wrote: post #50
danenania wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collusion among private corporations is scary, but it's not as scary as totalitarianism, mass imprisonment, and genocide. The precedents set for what governments end up doing once they get their hands on this level of social control are very bleak.

The amount you should reasonably be worried about something happening is the probability of the event multiplied by how bad that event would be. Government gone totally off the rails would be much worse, of course, but corporations going off the rails is much more likely. How many liberal democracies can you point to that have gone the way of totalitarianism, mass imprisonment, and genocide? I don't see a lot of exam…

"How many liberal democracies can you point to that have gone the way of totalitarianism, mass imprisonment, and genocide?"

How many 'liberal democracies' have built international surveillance dragnets? How many have secret prisons all over the world? How many spend more militarily than the rest of the world combined? I wouldn't say the US is exactly your run of the mill democracy these days.

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