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Such web sites can not arrest, render, kidnap, or torture me. The US gov can. I get a little icon telling me when and how I'm being tracked by websites, I do no
by alan_cx 13y ago
Such web sites can not arrest, render, kidnap, or torture me. The US gov can. I get a little icon telling me when and how I'm being tracked by websites, I do not have one that tells me the NSA is tracking me.
Somewhere in there is a bit of a difference.
- fetbaffe 13y agoOf course it is. That is why the US government goes to the private company to get your information instead of going to you directly, because that would be a violation of privacy. The economic model for this is called corporatism, which incidentally is the same as for fascism.
- dredmorbius 13y agoDepends on the site. Talk to Steve Jackson. Or Aaron Swartz (better hire a psychic, he's dead). Or Weev. And if you think that private companies and/or web sites didn't play a huge role in any of the above cases ... well, you and I inhabit different universes. As others have pointed out: private companies can collect and/or process information that governments uses. They're also susceptible to hacking by government or rogue agents: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Apple have all been targeted by Chinese government-related hackers (mostly looking for Faulun Gong and Tibetian activists). Other companies such as Cisco simply hand over the tools authoritarian states request.