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You seem to make three points: a) Western municipalities have deployed similar systems, albeit with massively significant differences in use case b) Western p
by blackbagboys 9y ago
You seem to make three points:
a) Western municipalities have deployed similar systems, albeit with massively significant differences in use case
b) Western political structures aren't perfect
c) the professional ethical obligations of technologists have yet to be codified
I'm certainly in agreement with you on all of these points, but I'm unclear on your argument. Is it just that many talented people will happily contribute to building a nightmarishly repressive socio-technical apparatus if the money is good enough? Again, no disagreement there, the article itself, and the many other stories on HN related to the shenanigans of Western security agencies, is ample proof of that.
- Spooky23 9y agoWithout a legal or moral framework that protects civil liberties, individual actors won't make consistently ethical choices because there is no penalty for making an unethical choice and no common understanding of what is or isn't ethical. If you ask a CPA or Attorney to do something contrary to their professional code of ethics, they will typically tell you "no" -- their livelihood is at stake. The grey areas in IT are much broader and more situational. Is pervasive surveillance to protect citizens from terrorists unethical? Is it unethical to automatically police jaywalking? Is it unethical for me to use facial recognition to identify people approaching my home? There is no right answer to these questions.