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Quoting the article: > [...] stop relying on governments for self-protection that you can handle yourself. If it’s not the current administration that will rep
by pera 10y ago
Quoting the article:
> [...] stop relying on governments for self-protection that you can handle yourself. If it’s not the current administration that will repeal our protections, it will be the next one. And what then?
The whole point of a democratic government is to protect the interest of the majority of their citizens, and the selling of personal personal data is clearly against the interest of most Americans. In a democracy the tool we have to protect our interests is the law. Unfortunately this tool sometimes is also used by small but powerful actors for their own purposes, colliding with the will of the majority. That's exactly when we have to fight back to keep the government democratic.
VPNs can be used as a temporary workaround by some people, but it's definitively not a good permanent fix for this constant invasion of privacy that many corporations in the US are so willing to attain. Even if you think you have a perfect technical solution (GNUnet? Tor? I2P?) the next administration can simply say that solution is unlawful, and what then? The fact is, sometimes we have to demand our government to do the right thing, and this now is one of those times.
- Zigurd 10y agoIt's evident from previous examples that it's a significant increment from legalizing a bad practice, that is anyway going to be done by law enforcement and other government organs, and by stealth even if it was illegal, to making software or protocols contraband.
- int_19h 10y agoThis argument is the central one in the article, and it's really weird, because it could be seemingly applied to any government regulation, or, indeed, any useful service provided by the government. Once you notice that, the whole piece is basically just ancap apologetics.
- michaelmrose 10y agoYou are right indeed if we abandon the law as a tool to protect ourselves and decide to go it alone not only will this surely leave the confused majority in the dust unprotected it provides no protection against future encroachment. Whats to stop them from banning consumer vpns or requiring registration and some sort of key escrow system whereby the key to your vpn is held by the government, your isp, and eventually your competitors/hackers after they steal it.
- dnautics 10y ago> The whole point of a democratic government is to protect the interest of the majority of their citizens Is this the goal we strive for? There are lots of things that we don't want that could be largely couched in the language of "being in the interest of a majority of citizens". For example: Aggressive policing against petty theft, stop and frisk, prohibiting sales of off label unpackaged cigarettes; antiterrorism laws with intrusive cavity searches at every airport; fugitive slave laws...