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This seems like a great way to hand China blackmail material that they can leverage against you. Obviously, I don't like government surveillance, but at least

by Sanzig 3y ago

This seems like a great way to hand China blackmail material that they can leverage against you. Obviously, I don't like government surveillance, but at least in the west we are (1) generally protected from the worst excesses by legislation, and (2) generally aligned with our own government's priorities on a very high level view (eg: support for liberal democracy), if not the specifics. Those two do not hold for China, especially for data from a foreigner. Even if you don't hold a security clearance, you can still be a target for hostile foreign actors, especially in the tech sector. What happens if a foreign actor with blackmail material on you threatens to destroy your life unless you cough up implementation details for a system you're working on, or open up a backdoor? If you are concerned about surveillance, fine, but there are much better ways to avoid it by using privacy-respecting self hosted and commercial services. Replacing American big tech with Chinese big tech is just trading bad for worse.

contrarian1234 3y ago
Mass surveillance and the abuse of personal data either by the government or companies (for instance predatory advertisement or things like being denied loans) are things that can potentially negatively affect a large swath of the population in a future where the government and companies go rotten. Yes, if you're in the 0.1% that is working on nuclear missiles or technological equivalents - and you are a direct target of espionage.. then my train of thought clearly wouldn't apply. The vast majority of the population is of no interest to foreign intelligence.. and never will be. Fantasizing that some day you will be is loosing sight of the big, and much more likely threat closer to home
- jstarfish 3y ago
  > if you're in the 0.1% that is working on nuclear missiles or technological equivalents - and you are a direct target of espionage.. then my train of thought clearly wouldn't apply. The vast majority of the population is of no interest to foreign intelligence.. and never will be. This isn't James Bond. The only way you could exhibit more ignorance about espionage would be by suggesting spies in balaclavas rappel through laser arrays to hack mainframes and steal blueprints. Foreign intelligence services target people in far more banal positions, all the way down to lowly network engineers, with boring goals like compromising communications infrastructure so the country you're about to invade can't coordinate defense.
  - Sanzig 3y ago
    Doesn't even have to be an invasion. Industrial espionage, IP theft, cyberattacks against critical infrastructure... plenty of hostile acts that aren't all-out war which can be facilitated by having a compromised insider.

by Sanzig 3y ago

contrarian1234 3y ago

Mass surveillance and the abuse of personal data either by the government or companies (for instance predatory advertisement or things like being denied loans) are things that can potentially negatively affect a large swath of the population in a future where the government and companies go rotten. Yes, if you're in the 0.1% that is working on nuclear missiles or technological equivalents - and you are a direct target of espionage.. then my train of thought clearly wouldn't apply. The vast majority of the population is of no interest to foreign intelligence.. and never will be. Fantasizing that some day you will be is loosing sight of the big, and much more likely threat closer to home

jstarfish 3y ago
> if you're in the 0.1% that is working on nuclear missiles or technological equivalents - and you are a direct target of espionage.. then my train of thought clearly wouldn't apply. The vast majority of the population is of no interest to foreign intelligence.. and never will be. This isn't James Bond. The only way you could exhibit more ignorance about espionage would be by suggesting spies in balaclavas rappel through laser arrays to hack mainframes and steal blueprints. Foreign intelligence services target people in far more banal positions, all the way down to lowly network engineers, with boring goals like compromising communications infrastructure so the country you're about to invade can't coordinate defense.
- Sanzig 3y ago
  Doesn't even have to be an invasion. Industrial espionage, IP theft, cyberattacks against critical infrastructure... plenty of hostile acts that aren't all-out war which can be facilitated by having a compromised insider.