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MA resident as well, what worries me more is that someone thought that this method of installation was a good idea and even more worrying is that they were also

MA resident as well, what worries me more is that someone thought that this method of installation was a good idea and even more worrying is that they were also able to execute on it. It feels rather shady and nefarious the lack of public announcement on it. Shenanigans like this how you get the populace to trust the local government less, which is the last thing this country needs.

dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
It's actually great it's happened. It showed everybody that the government can install whatever they want on your phone without your consent and knowledge. In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Another reminder you are not the owner of your device.
- tunap 5y ago
  -In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Then they'll be just like Google, Fecebook, Amazon, etc, etc.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
    Which leads to the question: if anyone powerful or wealthy enough can take total control of your phone, how comfortable do you feel with that? There are two routes here. One way is to deal with it the European way, i.e. to try to fix it by a legal framework. The other one is a technical solution like Purism, which is very far from mainstream still. The sooner people realize they have a problem, the sooner they start organizing to find a solution.
  - underseacables 5y ago
    My kids really want an oculus but I absolutely refuse to let Facebook into our house, anymore than I knowingly have to; I’m sure they’ve weaseled in other ways I don’t know about yet.
serial_dev 5y ago
I don't see anything bad with people not trusting their local government... Exhibit A
- marvindanig 5y ago
  Well, given that a significant percentage of citizenry is anti-vaxxer-level-stupid, there isn't much improvement over people trusting their local Government either…
  - tunap 5y ago
    Considering in a not too distant yesterday(pre-Covid) the "anti-vaxxers" were all liberal/granola types and now they are magically all conservative/racist types, perhaps you may want to re-assess your 2-dimensional view of the real world. I believe a cogent example was on the front-page of HN just a day or two ago, but IANYG.
    - slumdev 5y ago
      "Not too distant" means only five years ago. The "anti-vaxxers" were people who lived in primarily white, primarily wealthy, primarily urban or suburban environments and who refused (usually) the MMR vaccine. You don't find measles outbreaks in rural Mississippi. You find them in Washington, New York, and California. [1] So it's pretty rich to label someone as an "anti-vaxxer" for refusing the experimental, emergency-use, mRNA jabs, when that person has never demonstrated even the slightest hesitancy about receiving or administering every other approved vaccine. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_resurgence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_resurgence_in_the_Unit...
    - underseacables 5y ago
      Labels like anti-vaxxer just seems to be weaponized propaganda to me. It’s a cheap, easy way to discredit someone you don’t agree with. Hopefully as time goes on and disparaging groups throw these accusations back-and-forth of each other, that it eventually dilutes their meaning and impact.
    - 5y ago

dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago

It's actually great it's happened. It showed everybody that the government can install whatever they want on your phone without your consent and knowledge. In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Another reminder you are not the owner of your device.

tunap 5y ago
-In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Then they'll be just like Google, Fecebook, Amazon, etc, etc.
- dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
  Which leads to the question: if anyone powerful or wealthy enough can take total control of your phone, how comfortable do you feel with that? There are two routes here. One way is to deal with it the European way, i.e. to try to fix it by a legal framework. The other one is a technical solution like Purism, which is very far from mainstream still. The sooner people realize they have a problem, the sooner they start organizing to find a solution.
- underseacables 5y ago
  My kids really want an oculus but I absolutely refuse to let Facebook into our house, anymore than I knowingly have to; I’m sure they’ve weaseled in other ways I don’t know about yet.

serial_dev 5y ago

I don't see anything bad with people not trusting their local government... Exhibit A

marvindanig 5y ago
Well, given that a significant percentage of citizenry is anti-vaxxer-level-stupid, there isn't much improvement over people trusting their local Government either…
- tunap 5y ago
  Considering in a not too distant yesterday(pre-Covid) the "anti-vaxxers" were all liberal/granola types and now they are magically all conservative/racist types, perhaps you may want to re-assess your 2-dimensional view of the real world. I believe a cogent example was on the front-page of HN just a day or two ago, but IANYG.
  - slumdev 5y ago
    "Not too distant" means only five years ago. The "anti-vaxxers" were people who lived in primarily white, primarily wealthy, primarily urban or suburban environments and who refused (usually) the MMR vaccine. You don't find measles outbreaks in rural Mississippi. You find them in Washington, New York, and California. [1] So it's pretty rich to label someone as an "anti-vaxxer" for refusing the experimental, emergency-use, mRNA jabs, when that person has never demonstrated even the slightest hesitancy about receiving or administering every other approved vaccine. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_resurgence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_resurgence_in_the_Unit...
  - underseacables 5y ago
    Labels like anti-vaxxer just seems to be weaponized propaganda to me. It’s a cheap, easy way to discredit someone you don’t agree with. Hopefully as time goes on and disparaging groups throw these accusations back-and-forth of each other, that it eventually dilutes their meaning and impact.
  - 5y ago