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Earlier this year I was talking to a European friend presently living in China, who is pretty passionate about human rights issues, privacy policies, freedom, a
by clicks 13y ago
Earlier this year I was talking to a European friend presently living in China, who is pretty passionate about human rights issues, privacy policies, freedom, and so on. He said he wouldn't ever set on American soil, because he couldn't be arsed going through the mess of immigration policies and aggressive surveillance and all that. I remember I there and then called him up on it: that's not so, China is way more of a police state than America. I remember he replied something to the effect of "The difference is, the Chinese people pretty much know about it -- it's an open secret, and they're fine with it, they've accepted it -- Americans aren't even aware what's happening to them". That was that, but I thought still America is better: unlike in China where if you have any hopes of making it big as a company you pretty much need to play buddy-buddy with the government and accept that the gov't will exercise some control where it suits them. Turns out I'm wrong here too, seeing as Verizon, Facebook, Google, Dropbox play buddy-buddy with the gov't here as well.
This raises an interesting question: to make it big as a company, and not yield to whatever gov't requests ask of you, is it possible to for a company to survive here in America?
- rosser 13y agoProbably not. Just look at Qwest.
- clicks 13y agoInteresting, I never knew about this. For those who want to read up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest#Refusal_for_NSA_spying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest#Refusal_for_NSA_spying In May 2006, USA Today reported that millions of telephone calling records had been handed over to the United States National Security Agency by AT&T Corp., Verizon, and BellSouth since September 11, 2001. This data has been used to create a database of all international and domestic calls. Qwest was allegedly the lone holdout, despite threats from the NSA that their refusal to cooperate may jeopardize future government contracts,[10] a decision which has earned them praise from those who oppose the NSA program.[11] ... Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, convicted of insider trading in April 2007, alleged in appeal documents that the NSA requested that Qwest participate in its wiretapping program _more than six months before September 11, 2001_. Nacchio recalls the meeting as occurring on February 27, 2001. Nacchio further claims that the NSA cancelled a lucrative contract with Qwest as a result of Qwest's refusal to participate in the wiretapping program I've gotta say, although it sounds conspiratorial to question the validity of the allegations, recent events do make one think if there's more to the story of the charges and how they were brought about.
- muyuu 13y agoI also won't bother visiting the US anymore. Last time it was in 2009 and it was unpleasant enough, with absurd interviews before and after setting foot on US soil. Not happening again if I can help it.