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Open source hardly guarantees anything. Governments armed with everything under the sun can make the lives of privacy advocates a living hell. When I was younge

by anu7df 11y ago

Open source hardly guarantees anything. Governments armed with everything under the sun can make the lives of privacy advocates a living hell. When I was younger (no kids) I could think of standing up against it if need be. Things have changed, almost irrationally, with a family. Irrational because I would hate for my baby to grow up into an Orwellian dystopia but the fear of immediate consequences to the family keeps me from action. The point I am trying to make, is that government will not need to crack down on every one. Just a few brave snowdenlikes, the rest will either believe the government narrative or be afraid to rise up against it. So yes, open source is great, but we absolutely need corporations to stand up to government. Because let's face it.. In our society cash is king and a corporation like Apple has the cash,visibility and might to wield a sword for privacy even if they are possibly motivated by something other than concern for individual's privacy.

pdkl95 11y ago
> Open source hardly guarantees anything. { obligatory recommendation to watch PHK's "Operation Orchestra"[1], which discusses ways free and open software projects can be manipulated } [1] https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation_orchestra/ https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation... > but we absolutely need corporations to stand up to government We need solidarity - the people and corporations - to stand up to problems in government. We also need the people and government to stand up to problems in corporations. Hoping that our social problems will be fixed by other people or some other group is a terrible defense strategy. There will always be people that try to control power or money; this requires constant vigilance and push-back from everybody; failure to do so creates more potentially exploitable attack surface. The technical people that actually implement modern society hold an incredible amount of power. Unfortunately, the people involved are easily distracted with off-topic minutia and vague threats.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  Corporations and governments aren't actual concrete things, they are labels put on certain actions of people (and corporations, specifically, are just names for certain actions of people through government.) So "people and corporations" and "people and government" are both just people.
  - pdkl95 11y ago
    That's correct. I'm making the distinction because of the comment that we "need corporations".
  - Absentinsomniac 11y ago
    The distinction is important because people in government and people in corporations usually have different motives than people in general. (Particularly people in leadership roles within these org's)

by anu7df 11y ago

pdkl95 11y ago

> Open source hardly guarantees anything. { obligatory recommendation to watch PHK's "Operation Orchestra"[1], which discusses ways free and open software projects can be manipulated } [1] https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation_orchestra/ https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation... > but we absolutely need corporations to stand up to government We need solidarity - the people and corporations - to stand up to problems in government. We also need the people and government to stand up to problems in corporations. Hoping that our social problems will be fixed by other people or some other group is a terrible defense strategy. There will always be people that try to control power or money; this requires constant vigilance and push-back from everybody; failure to do so creates more potentially exploitable attack surface. The technical people that actually implement modern society hold an incredible amount of power. Unfortunately, the people involved are easily distracted with off-topic minutia and vague threats.

dragonwriter 11y ago
Corporations and governments aren't actual concrete things, they are labels put on certain actions of people (and corporations, specifically, are just names for certain actions of people through government.) So "people and corporations" and "people and government" are both just people.
- pdkl95 11y ago
  That's correct. I'm making the distinction because of the comment that we "need corporations".
- Absentinsomniac 11y ago
  The distinction is important because people in government and people in corporations usually have different motives than people in general. (Particularly people in leadership roles within these org's)