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Tell me what about this reduces government overreach and the severity of the law. Returning travelers quarantining at home will be forced to download an app th

Tell me what about this reduces government overreach and the severity of the law. Returning travelers quarantining at home will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-australia-still-liberal-democracy/619940/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a... It's a reduction in government overreach that you have a "choice" between one of their quarantine "hotels" or in-home surveillance? Is the part that is the lesser government overreach, the part where if you fail to address one of their random pings they'll send officers to your house to conduct an in-person check? The app isn't the problem in itself. The problem is the enslavement. This is a system of enslavement.

shkkmo 5y ago
Up until now you had no choice, when returning to Australia you had to pay to stay in a 2 week quarantine hotel. Creating an alternative solution for home quarantine gives people more options. You could argue that there was a better way to implement home quarantine. You could argue that the 2 week quarantine is goverment overreach. You could even argue that this option helps the government keep the 2 week quarantine in place longer by tempering its severity. I don't see those sorts of rational arguments. I see a bunch of people making an irrational or uninformed argument that this extends government overreach by making the 2 week quarantine rule more severe.
- smylie 5y ago
  I don't think you can argue with this subset of americans on this. I tried when this came up on hacker news last week, and they were adamant this was worse that going into a hotel, and that australians citizens were sleep walking into a totalitarian state for allowing this to happen. (And also that they only had second amendment rights like the USA this would never be allowed to happen). It was a bit of a wake up call actually - the level of conversation was starting to feel more like reddit than what I'd always (until now i guess) expected from hacker news.

shkkmo 5y ago

Up until now you had no choice, when returning to Australia you had to pay to stay in a 2 week quarantine hotel. Creating an alternative solution for home quarantine gives people more options. You could argue that there was a better way to implement home quarantine. You could argue that the 2 week quarantine is goverment overreach. You could even argue that this option helps the government keep the 2 week quarantine in place longer by tempering its severity. I don't see those sorts of rational arguments. I see a bunch of people making an irrational or uninformed argument that this extends government overreach by making the 2 week quarantine rule more severe.

smylie 5y ago
I don't think you can argue with this subset of americans on this. I tried when this came up on hacker news last week, and they were adamant this was worse that going into a hotel, and that australians citizens were sleep walking into a totalitarian state for allowing this to happen. (And also that they only had second amendment rights like the USA this would never be allowed to happen). It was a bit of a wake up call actually - the level of conversation was starting to feel more like reddit than what I'd always (until now i guess) expected from hacker news.