zlacker

>>pbrw+(OP)
Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs.

The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries).

The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger at the "evil American tech companies" while simultaneously doing the opposite when it comes to privacy from government...which is the real threat.

I could point to many instances of this but the easiest one is the EU commission currently pushing a ban on encryption.

>>pembro+eb
Are you sure there is a line between the tech companies and the governments? We’re in the middle of a massive intelligence scandal here in Denmark. Which at its core is about how a couple of high level figures might’ve leaked that our own government is sharing all our internet data with the US “illegally”. I put “illegally” in quotes because it’s not technically illegal for the US to use surveillance on us. Just like it’s not illegal for our secret police to gain access to US surveillance, which means that our secret police can use surveillance against Danish citizens indirectly even though it would be illegal for them to do so directly.

In the post Snowden world it’s hard to imagine that any massive tech service isn’t hooked directly into the NSA or that it’s being used for what isn’t exactly illegal surveillance but sort of is.

Not that you’re wrong of course, but I think we should still work on both issues. Even if you look at the EU the agencies which are working to protect and destroy our privacy aren’t the same. So it’s very possible to support one and not the other. Similarly I think we should absolutely crack down on tech company surveillance. What I don’t personally get is why it stops with Meta. Let’s not pretend TikTok and the others aren’t doing the exact same thing. I also think we should keep in mind that the consumer agencies aren’t only doing it to protect our privacy, they are also doing it to protect our tech industry, so it’s not exactly black and white, but I really don’t think we should stop just because other parts of the EU are also evil.

I’m also not convinced that they are doing a good job distracting anyone. Within the EU NGOs there is far more focus on end-to-end encryption and keeping our privacy safe from governments, especially in countries like Germany.

>>devjab+6m
> they are also doing it to protect our tech industry

Indeed. And due to the fact that such an industry basically doesn't exist, they are able to introduce such regulation.