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If a government cares enough to deploy fighter jets to hijack a plane like this in violation of every international norm, you can be sure it has the resources t

by lovecg 5y ago

If a government cares enough to deploy fighter jets to hijack a plane like this in violation of every international norm, you can be sure it has the resources to know where you are at all times regardless of how tightly those databases are locked down. Edit: for improved discourse as pointed out

trhway 5y ago
> to deploy fighter jets to hijack a plane like this in violation of every international norm it is pretty standard practice in case of a bomb threat around the world as no one knows where the bomber(s) would force the plane to fly to : https://abcnews.go.com/US/16s-scrambled-escort-jets-bomb-threat/story?id=28454445 https://abcnews.go.com/US/16s-scrambled-escort-jets-bomb-thr... "An apparent bomb threat against two passenger flights that was tweeted today resulted in two F-16 fighter jets being scrambled to escort the two airliners. The two flights were both enroute to Hartsfeld-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where they landed safely NORAD said."
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
dredmorbius 5y ago
Your shallow dismissal not only ignores a substantial portion of my linked article concerning risks and actual case history, but even the portion quoted above. Information is not power, information is a power multiplier. It enables actions (including attacks and defences) to be specifically focused and targeted. In the case of Kim Jung-nam, two women (by all accounts innocent accomplices) managed to kill a significant political target in what they thought wasn an entertainment prank by splashing him with liquid, on the ground, at an airport. Critical to the success of that attack was not access to supersonic military jet fighter aircraft, but simply knowing where and when the target would be in a specified location. Information that's now broadcast to accuracy of centimetres and seconds on many hundreds of millions if not billions of people worldwide right now. To give another example I've noted previously, what rights to privacy should a rhinocerous have? https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/25ll1v/does_a_rhinoceros_have_a_right_to_be_forgotten/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/25ll1v/does_a_...
- qubex 5y ago
  > Information is not power, information is a power multiplier. That’s deep and insightful, and now that you’ve written it, perfectly obvious in hindsight.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Thanks, though as a caution, I'm not fully sold myself, and I'm curious about cases in which information, knowledge, storage/retrieval, transmission, or processing might be either defensive or equalisers. Various forms of camouflage come to mind. Though the thought occurs that those can also be used by the more- and less-empowered, perhaps asymmetrically.
dang 5y ago
Please omit snarky swipes like "Oh please" from your HN comments—they just make the thread worse, and your comment would be quite fine without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
> If a government cares enough to deploy fighter jets [...] it has the resources to know where you are at all times these are very different capabilities. the former is limited to state actors the latter can be found out by any Amadeus employee without any security clearance. the only way to avoid this is not to fly or use a passport that isn't in your name. if one were to speculate it is likely not even Belarus that made this happen.

by lovecg 5y ago

trhway 5y ago

> to deploy fighter jets to hijack a plane like this in violation of every international norm it is pretty standard practice in case of a bomb threat around the world as no one knows where the bomber(s) would force the plane to fly to : https://abcnews.go.com/US/16s-scrambled-escort-jets-bomb-threat/story?id=28454445 https://abcnews.go.com/US/16s-scrambled-escort-jets-bomb-thr... "An apparent bomb threat against two passenger flights that was tweeted today resulted in two F-16 fighter jets being scrambled to escort the two airliners. The two flights were both enroute to Hartsfeld-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where they landed safely NORAD said."

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

dredmorbius 5y ago

Your shallow dismissal not only ignores a substantial portion of my linked article concerning risks and actual case history, but even the portion quoted above. Information is not power, information is a power multiplier. It enables actions (including attacks and defences) to be specifically focused and targeted. In the case of Kim Jung-nam, two women (by all accounts innocent accomplices) managed to kill a significant political target in what they thought wasn an entertainment prank by splashing him with liquid, on the ground, at an airport. Critical to the success of that attack was not access to supersonic military jet fighter aircraft, but simply knowing where and when the target would be in a specified location. Information that's now broadcast to accuracy of centimetres and seconds on many hundreds of millions if not billions of people worldwide right now. To give another example I've noted previously, what rights to privacy should a rhinocerous have? https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/25ll1v/does_a_rhinoceros_have_a_right_to_be_forgotten/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/25ll1v/does_a_...

qubex 5y ago
> Information is not power, information is a power multiplier. That’s deep and insightful, and now that you’ve written it, perfectly obvious in hindsight.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Thanks, though as a caution, I'm not fully sold myself, and I'm curious about cases in which information, knowledge, storage/retrieval, transmission, or processing might be either defensive or equalisers. Various forms of camouflage come to mind. Though the thought occurs that those can also be used by the more- and less-empowered, perhaps asymmetrically.

dang 5y ago

Please omit snarky swipes like "Oh please" from your HN comments—they just make the thread worse, and your comment would be quite fine without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

DyslexicAtheist 5y ago

> If a government cares enough to deploy fighter jets [...] it has the resources to know where you are at all times these are very different capabilities. the former is limited to state actors the latter can be found out by any Amadeus employee without any security clearance. the only way to avoid this is not to fly or use a passport that isn't in your name. if one were to speculate it is likely not even Belarus that made this happen.