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Does the government really need to know every subscription that every person in the county has? This seems like massive overreach/invasion of privacy.
by hayd 3y ago
Does the government really need to know every subscription that every person in the county has? This seems like massive overreach/invasion of privacy.
- lbschenkel 3y agoEven if that was the case: compared to the subscribing companies themselves selling not only that information, but also your personal data to the highest (and lowest) bidder?
- RGBCube 3y agoWell, the government can access your bank logs, so I don't think them seeing you have a TV and internet subscription is an issue. It's a great benefit of having an authoritarian government.
- Etherlord87 3y agoThe government can access the bank logs, but it doesn't have an automatic channel to do so for everyone at once. Making it easier for the government to spy on its citizens definitely is an issue.
- dmonitor 3y agoI wouldn't mind such a service being opt-in for citizens but mandatory for companies to support.
- hayd 3y agoSurely, in theory at least, they require a subpoena/warrant. Perhaps I am hopelessly naive.
- autoexec 3y agoThey don't need a subpoena/warrant for data that the company chooses to sell the government. It's not your data, but data about you owned by the company. The government can ask a bank or netflix for all their customers data or even for an online portal that gives them unlimited access to whatever they need in exchange for cash and plenty of companies welcome the new revenue stream. (see for example https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-government-buys-data-americans-little-oversight-report-finds-rcna89035 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-government-buys-dat...) This isn't limited to the government buying up data either. Things like access to real-time GPS location has been for sale from every major mobile carrier
- atahanacar 3y agoActually, at least for this system, it is more like a common API enforced by e-Devlet with a client on e-Devlet, rather than the government tracking your subscriptions. Every time you open the page for this central cancellation system, it queries the providers' servers using a token generated from your digital key (so you can't query random people's info) and shows you if you have a subscription with them or not. If you want to cancel, it basically generates and sends a digitally signed and pre-filled form over digital mail (kind of like e-mail, but legally binding, timestamped, encrypted and mandatory for all corporate entities - like some sort of online notary). At this point, everything continues as if this system wasn't involved, but now you have proof of intent to cancel. If they don't act on it in 2 work days you are in no obligation to pay for them anymore. And even if you accidentally do pay, you will be refunded.
- stolsvik 3y agoThis is amazing. Really, truly incredible. How many other countries have this? It should be promoted - I want this in Norway! Has any of the code and infrastructure been open sourced?
- atahanacar 3y agoUnfortunately not that I know of. Probably some executive thinks security by obscurity is a real thing. In my opinion any software developed using taxpayer money must be licensed copyleft.
- brewdad 3y agoWhat makes you think a government like the US doesn’t have this info? We’ve already seen that they have no problem buying data they otherwise can’t collect directly from individuals.