5 ms·

Surprising. It seems usually a bad idea to trust a government.

• kasperni 6y ago
  That really depends on where you are in the world.
  • tehlike 6y ago
    Not really. It might be good now, but no guarantees that it will stay that way. Principle of least privilege and data should be the norm but sadly it never is.
    • kasperni 6y ago
      > Not really. It might be good now, but no guarantees that it will stay that way. By that definition there really aren't any entities that you can trust. Including family, friends, etc.
      • malka 6y ago
        You cannot compare individual, and abstract entities such as states. Humans feel empathy. States (and corporations) only follow interests.
        • deleted 6y ago
          [deleted]
        • slg 6y ago
          >Humans feel empathy. States (and corporations) only follow interests. This is such a bizarre statement to me. States and corporations are made of people. For the states and corporations to lack empathy it means the people controlling them are lacking empathy.
          • malka 6y ago
            people without empathy ends up either in prison, or as a top dog. So yeah, IMO corporations and states are ruled by ruthless people. I do not trust them at all.
          • NhanH 6y ago
            States and corporations have incentives/ goals (which is actually independent from any single human inside the organization). The incentives then got turn into smaller incentives for the human that they are made of. For states and corporations to have empathy, the empathy of the human inside will need to be stronger than their incentives. This is a lot different than a single human only need empathy to not do bad things.
          • ClumsyPilot 6y ago
            Its bizzare that you doubt it - you mist have been fortunate to never have been harmed by a faceless bureaucracy. There is an entire genre of kafkaesque literature, where the whole system is so broken that even top officials synpathetic to your plight cannot help you. There is 'computer says no' situation where a bank clerk wants to give you a mortgage, but cannot because the computer system flagged something, but wont tell you or him what it is. This is a well known and understood problem, to argue that it doesnt exist is just to live in denial.
            • slg 6y ago
              The bureaucracy stops being faceless the moment you encounter a human. If the human is unwilling to help you, that is on that human. If that human is unable to help you, that is the human who put that obstacle in the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy isn't making any actions itself. To be clear, I am not defending governments, corporations, or bureaucracies. I am pointing out those things are too often used as a shield so the individual can divorce themselves from the results of their actions.
              • ClumsyPilot 6y ago
                Would you be able to force your company to make a donation of $100 to save someone's life? Like actually get a major corporation like Google to move the money out of their bank account as a regular rank-and-file developer? If not, are you evil, or is Google evil? The system is often setup in such a way that the person who is setting the rules doesn't see their impact and doesn't even know you exist, and the person who sees your plight is powerless to help you. Cruel system can arise with no intention, just stupidity.
        • xboxnolifes 6y ago
          I feel that it's more the fact that a single person is always the same person (physically) over their lifetime, while a state and corporation is a rotating door of people and philosophies. The same idea as how a Monarchy can be a fine government system until you get that one terrible king.
    • 4ggr0 6y ago
      And why the focus on governments? Is the same risk not present with private corporations?
      • 2038AD 6y ago
        Governments can legally kill you (It's better to say states but the effect is much the same.)
      • s3tz 6y ago
        The probability you can switch a corporation is much higher.
        • ClumsyPilot 6y ago
          On the contrary, I have moved 3 countries but can't avoid Google, AWS and the rest of suveliance capitalism.
      • tehlike 6y ago
        it is a generic statement. applies to most things you can think of if not all.
• postingpals 6y ago
  The alternative is trusting corporations, who also give your data to the government. Who do you trust with power then?
  • malka 6y ago
    Me. My wife.
    • sverhagen 6y ago
      It seems exceptional to me to have relatives with the exact same hygiene on data protection. In my experience it's often yet another party I'm forced to give "my" (our) data to. Who then give it to corporations again, and so on. But I certainly respect that everyone could have different experiences in this area.