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having seen this issue through the crypto wars and pgp, the patriot act, the FISA scandals, bullrun's various crypto backdoors and rng sabotage, the tls 1.3 fow

having seen this issue through the crypto wars and pgp, the patriot act, the FISA scandals, bullrun's various crypto backdoors and rng sabotage, the tls 1.3 foward secrecy controversies, twitter files, then vax passports and digital identity- these people just never go away, and there's always a new generation to replace them. it seems established now that people in tech need to be vigilant because that game is never not on.

MangoToupe 1y ago
Now that we have institutions devoted to spying on people and justifying it, there's no way this is going away through the normal mechanisms of government. You need to kill these things in their infancy or people accept them as normal. Folks working at the institution are invested in preserving it, and those jockeying to join the institution are incentivized to be more zealously bought in to the value of spying in the first place.
transcriptase 1y ago
There’s never a shortage of people who lacked a strong father figure and latch on to government authority to meet that psychological need.
- weberer 1y ago
  Most of this stuff is done in secret without the consent of the public. Look at PRISM for example. Nobody voted for that, and it was a huge scandal when its existence was leaked.
  - account42 1y ago
    Is something really a big scandal when no heads roll (metaphorically at least)?
- bigyabai 1y ago
  Honestly, that's a prejudiced perspective and not even close to the reason surveillance persists anyways. Go to your local Verizon store and try to find a product free from government surveillance. Anything that is more electronically complex than a phone charger will probably be spying on you. Portable hotspot? Backdoored. Modern tablet or phone? Backdoored too. WWAN laptop you installed Linux on? They collect your browsing data at the tower. If Americans had en-masse daddy issues that encouraged surveillance then sufficient awareness could ostensibly "fix" the issue of privacy. But we can't fix it; the preeminent issue is that every business you spend your money on is unwilling to resist government coercion.

MangoToupe 1y ago

Now that we have institutions devoted to spying on people and justifying it, there's no way this is going away through the normal mechanisms of government. You need to kill these things in their infancy or people accept them as normal. Folks working at the institution are invested in preserving it, and those jockeying to join the institution are incentivized to be more zealously bought in to the value of spying in the first place.

transcriptase 1y ago

There’s never a shortage of people who lacked a strong father figure and latch on to government authority to meet that psychological need.

weberer 1y ago
Most of this stuff is done in secret without the consent of the public. Look at PRISM for example. Nobody voted for that, and it was a huge scandal when its existence was leaked.
- account42 1y ago
  Is something really a big scandal when no heads roll (metaphorically at least)?
bigyabai 1y ago
Honestly, that's a prejudiced perspective and not even close to the reason surveillance persists anyways. Go to your local Verizon store and try to find a product free from government surveillance. Anything that is more electronically complex than a phone charger will probably be spying on you. Portable hotspot? Backdoored. Modern tablet or phone? Backdoored too. WWAN laptop you installed Linux on? They collect your browsing data at the tower. If Americans had en-masse daddy issues that encouraged surveillance then sufficient awareness could ostensibly "fix" the issue of privacy. But we can't fix it; the preeminent issue is that every business you spend your money on is unwilling to resist government coercion.