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What about the "discourse" where commenters submit ideas to the effect of "This should be illlegal." Do they realise that, like government regulation, that wou
by pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
What about the "discourse" where commenters submit ideas to the effect of "This should be illlegal."
Do they realise that, like government regulation, that would leave discretion over enforcement to a third party, e.g., a prosecutor.
It is possible to have a regulatory framework and a criminal code aimed at Big Tech that is, in practice, never enforced, rarely enforced, or enforced arbitrarily.
Giving users a private remedy against tech companies, letting them initiate actions in response to wrongdoing, does not mean anyone has to forgo democratic government, government regulation, law enforcement, and so on.
It is just something that as far as I can see is not getting any focus in popular discussions about the evils of Big Tech. We watch as people bring factually-supported cases over large scale privacy violations but they always fail in the courts because there is no law that is truly adequate to bring them under. The existing law requires actual injury. It reflects a time before the ubiquity of computer networks, let alone the widespread practice of using them for dragnet surveillance on the public as a business model.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoFair. But that would, at least in the US, require a complete overhaul of the justice system. As it is, the justice belongs to those who can spend more on lawyers, so few individuals are willing to accept a realistic risk of having their lives forever ruined on the off chance they'll win against a corporation that can easily outspend them in court.
- pwdisswordfish2 6y agoI think we each have different ideas about what these statutory private remedies might look like. It is not necessary for the applicant's life to be ruined by filing claims. Not all litigation is like that. Nor would it be necessary to overhaul the justice system. There must be examples you have in mind that have shaped your view of what is or is not possible.